New Delhi: The BJP on Monday held nationwide protests over Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s controversial “baap” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding an apology from him and his party.
Kharge sparked a controversy when he said “Modi ka baap bhi jayega” in response to an audience member’s comment that “the Prime Minister will not go anywhere” during an event in Patna on Sunday.
In Delhi, BJP leaders and workers staged a protest near Kharge’s residence on Rajaji Marg. The protesters were stopped by the police when they tried to march from Sena Bhawan Circle towards his residence. They shouted slogans and demanded an apology from Kharge and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.
In Bihar, BJP leaders and supporters, led by state unit president Sanjay Saraogi, took out a ‘Jan Akrosh March’ from the party headquarters to Dak Bungalow Chauraha in Patna and burnt an effigy of Kharge.
“Yesterday, all limits were crossed when the platform to celebrate the birth anniversary of Shrikrishna Singh, the architect of modern Bihar, was used to make abusive remarks about the late father of the Prime Minister,” Saraogi said.
In Jammu, BJP workers held a protest at Dogra Chowk under the leadership of party MLA Shagun Parihar and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Jammu and Kashmir president Arun Prabhat.
They raised slogans against the Congress and burnt posters of Kharge and Gandhi. According to reports, protests and demonstrations were held in Samba, Kathua, Poonch, Udhampur, Rajouri, Doda, Kishtwar and Reasi districts over the issue.
In Bengaluru, BJP leaders staged a protest at Freedom Park, demanding that the Congress president apologise to the people of the country. The protesters shouted slogans against Kharge, climbed barricades and attempted to march towards Vidhana Soudha, the seat of power.
The police detained several BJP leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka, Legislative Council Opposition leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, Ashwath Narayan, CP Ramamurthy and MLC N Ravikumar, and took them to Upparpet police station.
Protests were also held in other parts of the country, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Telangana.
In Jharkhand, hundreds of BJP workers and senior leaders of the party, including its state president Aditya Sahu and Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi, marched to the Congress office in Ranchi, raising slogans like “Stop abusing the Prime Minister” and “India will not tolerate insults to the Prime Minister”.
In Uttar Pradesh, the protest was led by BJP Lucknow Mahanagar president Anand Dwivedi and saw the participation of party workers and leaders, including Uttar Pradesh BJP vice president Neeraj Singh. The demonstrators marched from the statue of former UP governor Lalji Tandon to the Hazratganj crossing, holding placards and banners demanding an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and raising slogans against the opposition party.
In Kolkata, thousands of BJP workers, led by senior party leader and West Bengal minister Tapas Roy, took out a rally to protest against Kharge’s controversial remark. Roy demanded an unconditional apology from Kharge and the Congress for “hurting the sentiments of 140 crore Indians”.
