A remark made by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday that seemed to equate ex-CM and state Congress chief Kamal Nath with terrorists has left the local Congress leaders fuming.
The party unit has decided to lodge a complaint at the Shyamla Hills Police station in Bhopal on Friday seeking the registration of FIR against Chouhan for his remark. The delegation of Congress will be led by the vice-president of the media department Sangeeta Sharma, a Congress communiqué said.
The chief minister’s remark came at a local bodies’ poll campaign meeting at Sidhi on Thursday. Alluding to the warning by Kamal Nath to the allegedly partisan administrative and police officials involved in polling work, Chouhan said, “These days, Kamal Nath has also become like a terrorist; He threatens. Yesterday too, he threatened that he would keep track of them (officials) and settle their scores as they were supporting BJP.”
The CM went on to say when Nath was chief minister, he would threaten and insult officials and employees and he continues to behave in the same way, even when he is not the CM. “But the people of the state have settled your score, how will you settle scores (with officials and employees),” Chouhan said.
Before this controversial comment, Chouhan also attacked the Congress in general – calling it synonymous with terrorism. “See what has become of the Congress. There has been a direct relation between Congress and terrorism. You can check the history and see that if terrorist activities increased in the country, it was due to the Congress. Congress and terrorism are synonymous with each other.
Angry reactions from the MP Congress came late on Thursday night as the details of the controversial comments got circulated. Chief of the media department of MP Congress, K.K. Mishra posted a tweet addressing Chouhan, “you have a terrorist heritage from Godse to Pragya Singh (Thakur). You people were involved from beheading to ISI spies, instigating riots, attack on Amarnath Yatra to various blasts. And you call Kamal Nath – who is linked to a family of martyrs of fought terrorism like Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi), Indira-Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh. Zara zubaan sambhalkar (do mind your language).”
Vice-chairman of media department, Bhupendra Gupta tweeted, “Shivraj Singh ji has shattered limits of civil decency by calling Kamal Nath ji a terrorist. When Shivraj ji himself proclaims that he would hang (officials) upside down and that he was in a different mood, did the spirit of terrorism enter him then? Do look into a mirror.”
BJP spokesman Hitesh Bajpai counter-attacked – especially over the tweet of Mishra saying, “you are threatening the chief minister. Your language shows that you are speaking in the street style, which is very shameful. Fight on the issues. And tell us what you want to do, don’t issue hollow threats.”
