CHENNAI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge sparked a row after he referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “terrorist.”Senior BJP leaders reacted sharply to the comment, demanding an unconditional apology from the octogenarian leader. Union minister and BJP’s TN in-charge Piyush Goyal went a step further, demanding that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and chief minister M K Stalin also apologise for Kharge’s remarks.
The row started when Kharge criticised AIADMK for aligning with BJP, arguing that the move undermined the principles of Dravidian icons E V R Periyar and C N Annadurai. “How can they (AIADMK) join with Modi? He is a terrorist. He is one who doesn’t believe in equality. His party doesn’t believe in equality or justice. By joining them, these people are weakening democracy and the philosophy of Periyar, Anna, Dr Ambedkar and Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi),” Kharge told the media in Chennai on the final day of campaigning for the April 23 polls.The comments triggered a heated debate in social media and drew sharp criticism from the BJP leadership. Goyal rebutted Kharge, stating, “Congress and DMK have humiliated 140 crore Indians, including our eight crore Tamil brothers and sisters, with this statement.”Upon arriving in Karnataka, Kharge clarified his stance to reporters, stating he did not mean that Modi was a terrorist, but was only accusing the PM of “terrorising” politicians and candidates using central agencies to win elections.“I said that tax terrorism is happening. I did not call him a terrorist; rather, he is facilitating a form of terrorism to scare people. He is trying to silence people through raids and attempting to defeat them in elections,” Kharge said.However, the controversy refused to die down. Former BJP Tamil Nadu unit chief K Annamalai and several other BJP leaders expressed their strong protest over the remarks and joined the chorus demanding an apology from the Congress leader.However, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal dismissed BJP’s allegations, stating that Kharge clarified that he had not called the PM ‘a terrorist’. Venugopal added that BJP was “manipulating a non-issue into an issue”, calling the backlash “unwarranted.”
