Mallikarjun Kharge gets more aggressive: “Who in the BJP died for this country?”
Mallikarjun Kharge, the head of the Congress party and the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, refused to apologise on Tuesday for his controversial comment about the BJP’s role in the freedom struggle. Kharge stepped up his attack on the party, telling the BJP that he could “still say they had no role in the freedom struggle.” This made the party in Parliament very angry. Several members of the Treasury Bench had asked the Congress leader to apologise for his words, which they called “foul.”
Kharge said, “I can still say that they had no part in the freedom struggle.” This was a day after he said, “Not even a dog of the BJP was lost” for the country.
“I said what I said at the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Alwar, Rajasthan, outside the House. Kharge said, “What I said was political outside the House, not inside.” “We don’t need to talk about that here.”
The veteran Congress leader called the BJP “maafi maangne waale log,” which means “people who ask for an apology.” He said, “Maafi maangne waale log want people who fought for freedom to apologise… I said that both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi made sacrifices. Who among you died to keep this country together?”
Kharge talked about the Congress’s role in the country’s fight for freedom at a rally held as part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra on Monday. “Has even your dog died for the country? Still, they say they are patriots, and if we say something, they call us deshdrohi, which means “anti-national.” This is what the Congress leader told PTI.
He also said that the BJP government “talks like a lion but acts like a mouse” because it doesn’t do anything about China crossing the border and is trying to avoid a debate in Parliament about the issue.
BJP and Opposition leaders got into several heated arguments about Kharge’s comments on the 11th day of Parliament’s Winter Session, which is still going on.
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in Rajya Sabha that Mallikarjun Kharge should apologise for using offensive language in Alwar.
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi told the news agency ANI that Kharge’s language was “reprehensible.” “The way Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge talks is wrong, and his words show what he thinks,” he said. “Congress is insulting the revolutionaries and soldiers of Azad Hind Fauj by taking all the credit for the freedom movement.”
