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A Bharatiya Janata Party MLA called Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi a traitor and said he should be either be hanged or be shot for siding with people who shouted anti-India slogans.
BJP MLA from Baytoo in Barmer Kailash Choudhary, while addressing farmers during a ‘kisan sammelan’ in his constituency, said the Congress leader whom his partymen call ‘rajkumar’ had no right to be in India for having gone to the people who shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans and idolized 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
The MLA said, “Some people… raised slogans praising Afzal Guru, about breaking India and of Pakistan Zindabad… and if Rahul Gandhi, who is called the Congress’s rajkumar, goes and sides with these people, stands with them and supports them. It is treason.”
“Rahul Gandhi is a traitor; such a traitor should be punished and should be hanged …and shot,” he added.
The comments were initially circulated on Whatsapp. When asked if he had indeed made these statements, Choudhary at once agreed, and was quoted as saying to The Indian Express, “Yes, I said it. If he goes and supports such anti-national people…he should be shot. I am a nationalist and if anyone raises a finger at Bharat Mata, I will not tolerate it.”
State Congress president Sachin Pilot reacting to the comments, demanded that the BJP sack the legislator for his derogatory remark.
“Kailash Choudhary’s statement in Kisan Sammelan in his home constituency of Bayut in Barmer district is highly objectionable and deplorable,” Pilot said in a statement.
“Choudhary’s statement actually expose BJP’s real face and character in public, the BJP should sack him from membership from the party. His statement falls under the category of criminal act under laws, and a case should be registered against him,” Pilot demanded.
-- With inputs from PTI
Image: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addresses students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Saturday. Photograph: PTI