Four words in Hindi rang across a hall in Patna on Sunday: “Modi kahin nahin jayega (PM Narendra Modi won’t go anywhere). Mallikarjun Kharge reacted immediately and angrily to a heckle that wasn’t.
“Modi ka baap bhi jayega (Even his father will have to go),” the Congress chief said, repeating himself thrice, raising the right arm high for emphasis. The man who said the four words, though, said his sentence wasn’t heard in full, and that he meant the exact opposite.
The ruling party has announced a nationwide series of protests on the issue. Kharge’s ‘baap’ retort has by now drawn in multiple ministers and the whole roster of BJP leaders demanding an apology from the veteran leader.
“I was actually saying, ‘Unless the public revolts, Modi will not go,” said the not-a-heckler Santosh Kumar, after he’d received a beating and been thrown out of the venue. That “unless” bit was lost in the din, twice over — first inside a Congress hall and then in the BJP’s chorus.
Earlier reporting noted: A stark remark by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge about Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event in Patna triggered a massive row on Sunday as the BJP alleged he had insulted not just the PM and his late father but the country too. Kharge was speaking on the alleged electoral fraud that has fuelled a series of protests by the Congress-led Opposition and the youth Group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in recent weeks. After Santosh Kumar’s exchange with Kharge, several other attendees surrounded the man, threw him to the ground, beat him, and threw him out of the hall, assuming him to be a Trojan Horse. He placed the remark in a longer list: “They have hurled insults at his revered mother, called him ‘merchant of death’, and mocked his poverty by calling him ‘chaiwala’. Sambit Patra’s comment pointedly showed how Santosh Kumar’s later clarifications meant nothing in the narrative. The BJP MP and spokesperson insisted, “Congress workers themselves, at a party meeting where their national president was speaking, appeared convinced that Rahul Gandhi was not capable of leading the party to victory… Even an ordinary Congress worker seems to understand this. “I was saying that unless there is a revolt, Modi will not go. Kharge made the comment in response to a man in the crowd who was heard saying the phrase “… Modi nahin jayega ( will not go/lose power ). The alleged heckler, Santosh Kumar, was thrashed by Congress supporters.
Home Minister Amit Shah said in a post on X that Kharge’s jibe showed how the Congress had “torn apart all norms of decorum”. Only one part of that sentence was heard and was misunderstood,” alleged heckler Santosh Kumar said after being pushed out of the venue. Earlier reporting noted: “Modi ka baap bhi jayega (Even his father will have to go),” Kharge said twice.
Earlier reporting noted: “I was saying that unless there is a revolt, Modi will not go.
Senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan, who recently lost the education ministry after a mass protest by the CJP over paper leaks, asked whether the Congress had run out of arguments against the PM.
BJP chief Nitin Nabin said the Opposition resorts to personal attacks as it has no issues left to debate. BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha used the words “disgusting, petulant, uncouth”.
