New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission over Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s ‘poisonous snake’ jibe and demanded removal of ‘despicable and derogatory’ remarks from all social media handles and digital platforms.​

It also urged the EC to issue a show-cause notice to the Congress president over remarks he made during an election rally in Assam and pressed for a public apology for the blatant violation of the model code of conduct.​

In a seven-page complaint to the EC, the BJP listed out objectionable and distasteful remarks made by Kharge twice – one about illiterate Gujaratis and the other about likening the BJP and Sangh to poisonous snakes and demanded that the poll body issue a formal censure against the party as well as its president.​

Mallikarjun Kharge, while addressing a poll rally in Assam, sparked off a political storm as he compared the BJP and RSS to serpents and called for crushing them, even if it meant taking a break from prayers.

His comments, made apparently at a gathering of minorities, drew strong condemnation from the BJP.​

Kharge made the highly controversial remarks at an election rally in Assam’s Nilambazar, in the run-up to Assembly elections, slated for April 9.​

“lf you are offering namaz [Islamic prayer] and a poisonous snake comes, you must abandon the namaz and kill it – this is what the Quran says. The RSS and the BJP are these poisonous snakes. If you do not kill them, you will not survive,” Kharge said, as per the BJP complaint to the poll panel.​

In its complaint to the EC, the BJP has accused him of inciting communal hatred and promoting enmity between religious and political groups.​

“The offender is the National President of a national political party and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. He is not a fringe actor but the highest-ranking leader of India’s principal opposition party,” the complaint said.​

It further said, “The use of Islamic scripture to exhort Muslim voters to treat political opponents as enemies who must be ‘killed’ is not protected political speech. It directly subverts the constitutional ideal of elections as a secular, rational, and peaceful exercise of democratic franchise.”​

–IANS

mr/dan

​