BJP workers storm Bihar Cong HQ over ‘abusive language’ targeting PM Modi

PATNA, Aug 29: The issue of the alleged abuse hurled at Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar spilled out on the streets on Friday when BJP workers stormed the state Congress headquarters, prompting the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha to declare ‘truth always triumphs’.
While the person who had allegedly screamed expletives into the mic at Darbhanga two days ago was arrested, BJP workers in the state capital staged a march to Sadaqat Ashram, the Bihar Congress headquarters, and clashed with their counterparts in the opposition party.
“We will not tolerate the insult to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rahul Gandhi, his party and alliance partners will have to apologise,” said state minister Nitin Nabin, who had led the procession from the BJP office, situated a couple of kilometres from Sadaqat Ashram.
Gandhi, who was in Gopalganj, about 120 km away, and is likely to be in Patna on Monday when the yatra will conclude, came out with an X post in Hindi, indirectly referring to the clash.
“Violence and falsehood stand no chance before truth and non-violence. Indulge in assault and vandalism to your heart’s content. We will continue our fight to protect truth and the Constitution. Truth always triumphs! (Satyamev Jayate),” wrote Gandhi.
Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot, who is accompanying Gandhi, was more blunt.
“Whoever used abusive language deserves condemnation. But it is wrong to associate the Congress and the INDIA bloc with the episode. And the attack on our party’s state headquarters was abominable. We hope the Bihar government takes appropriate action against the accused. It is clear that the BJP is rattled by the success of ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’,” Pilot said.
Notably, abusive language was used in Jale assembly segment of Darbhanga on Wednesday when Gandhi, his sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had passed through the district on motorcycles.
On Thursday, local Congress leader Mohd Naushad, who has been named in a case lodged at Simri police station by Darbhanga BJP president Adityan Narayan Manna, admitted that the video was of a podium he had got erected, but claimed that profane language was used by people not known to him in his absence.
On Friday, Darbhanga Police identified the culprit as Mohd Rizvi alias Raja, a 20-year-old resident of Singhwara, and arrested him.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Pawan Khera, who heads the party’s media and publicity department, claimed that he suspected the BJP toolkit at work.
“We would like to know who had instigated the person to indulge in such behaviour. It is obvious that we would not do anything that would take the focus away from yatra. The BJP toolkit works by planting such elements in gatherings of opposition parties so that its leaders can later on raise a huge and cry,” Khera claimed. (PTI)