Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was paternally stern with the INDIA bloc rally crowd in Delhi on Sunday, warning that he would keep his speech short only if they quieted down, as they repeated a line he said about Prime Minister Narendra Modi that kicked up a controversy a week ago.
That remark drew a demand for an apology from the BJP, which announced nationwide protests.
” Modi ka baap bhi jayega (Even Modi’s father will go)”, a small group chanted, repeating the line Kharge used for Prime Minister Narendra Modi that triggered a row a week earlier. The BJP has since taken up ” Modi kahin nahin jayega (Modi is not going anywhere)” as a counter-drive. Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput said Kharge was only using an idiom: “And PM Modi has made much worse comments.”
” Modi jayega, tabhi loktantra bachega (Modi will go, and democracy will thus survive),” the Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) said in his speech. A man in the audience, Santosh Kumar, was heard saying, ” Modi kahin nahin jayega (Modi won’t go anywhere),” during Kharge’s speech. Kharge retorted, ” Modi ka baap bhi jayega ,” repeating the line thrice. Santosh Kumar, who was beaten and thrown out of the hall by other attendees, later told NDTV he had not been heard in full. “I was actually saying, ‘Unless the public revolts, Modi will not go’,” he said. On Sunday, the Congress president spoke before Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi, who played a part in the Kharge subplot, holding up a “final boss” placard with his face on it. In his speech, Gandhi called the 2024 Lok Sabha elections “illegal” and said Gyanesh Kumar would be removed from his post and “go to jail”.
