Madhya Pradesh Congress has lashed out at BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya for an age-related barb against state Congress chief Kamal Nath and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh, both ex-chief ministers of the state.
During his speech at the working committee meeting of MP BJP, Vijayvargiya had commented on Nath and Singh saying, “What should I call them? Should I call them do jasoos (two spies) or budhau (old man in parochial terms)? They are 75 years of age. When they walk, just look at their gait. Just take out a video of Kamal Nath walking and that of (chief minister) Shivraj (Singh Chouhan) Ji walking. The speed will tell you how swift the BJP is.”
Kamal Nath will be 77 this November, while Digvijaya Singh is 76-years-old. However, Vijayvargiya himself is 67 too, though Chouhan is younger at 64 years.
Madhya Pradesh BJP has often been making tangential reference to the advanced age of Kamal Nath, who is clear chief ministerial face for Congress this time, saying that the Congress has no youth leadership. Divijaya is leading the backroom strategy of Congress and is on an extensive tour of the state currently.
However this time, the comment of Vijayvargiya was far more direct and acrid, and coming from a national-level leader, the Congress launched a sharp attack with Nath himself responding indirectly.
In a long tweet, Nath said, “It is for the first time in the history of Madhya Pradesh when the ruling party has accepted defeat six months before the (Assembly) polls. The senior leaders of the party, including the CM, are completely cut off from public issues and have lost their balance with the pro-people announcements of the Congress. All of them together are busy cursing me every morning and evening.”
Adding that the BJP was not cursing him but the pro-people announcements like cash assistance to women, cheap electricity, old age pension, loan waiver for farmers, Nath added that actually, the ruling party was cursing the golden future of over 8.5 crore people of MP. “But remember, Kamal Nath has spent 44 years in the service of Madhya Pradesh. In the path of this service, whether I get expletives, stones or abuses, I will accept everything, but I will not let the future of Madhya Pradesh be played with.”
Former minister P.C. Sharma said that the BJP has made its own senior leaders like Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi sit at home and is now insulting senior leaders of Congress. He reminded Vijayvargiya that he could become a mayor (of Indore) while being MLA due to Digvijaya Singh (who was then the CM). “You, yourself is spying on the chief minister, and finding out ways to get him removed. You keep weaving conspiracies but even with them, you failed in West Bengal. The pair of Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh is like that of Rama-Laxmana and this pair will destroy your Ravana-like fortification,” Sharma said.
Advisor for Nath and MP Congress, Piyush Babele tweeted, “BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya has become a rejected commodity of politics. They have become dependent on hate comments to keep themselves in the media. Sometimes he makes objectionable comments on daughters and sometimes about senior leaders. His actions are spoiling his old age. His frustration is not hidden.”
State Congress media department chief K.K. Mishra said that probably PM Narendra Modi (72) and not Kamal Nath or Digvijaya Singh were target of Vijayvargiya, who has become restive after a Supreme Court order on rape allegations.
Vice-president of MP Mahila Congress made a rather stinging comment, asking Vijayvargiya, who she said considers himself young, to look at his own face in the mirror carefully as his face has become animal-like. She suggested he take up face yoga to find relief.
Media department vice-chairperson Sangeeta Sharma said that Vijayvargiya seems to be expressing his own pain (by his comment) as Shivraj Singh Chouhan had raced far ahead of him and even Chouhan’s son had overtaken Vijayvargiya’s son (MLA Akash).