On the last day of campaigning ahead of Tamil Nadu polls, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge landed in a major controversy after he called PM Modi a terrorist.
Kharge said, “How can they (AIADMK) join with Modi? He is a terrorist. And he who won’t believe in equality. His party won’t believe in equality and justice. And these people are joining with them, it means that they are weakening democracy.”
The remark drew strong response from BJP with party’s TN election incharge and Union Minister Piyush Goyal says, “NDA alliance is getting a clean sweep. You look at the tremendous response that Prime Minister Modi got, and that Edappadi K. Palaniswami is getting day in and day out. You saw the road show at Mylapore of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. You saw Chandrababu Naidu, the response he got.”
However, Kharge has now tried to clarify his remark and provided explanation for it. “Because the BJP government is terrorising political parties and, particularly, candidates. They are using institutions like the CBI, ED, and the Income Tax Department, and are misusing them. They are creating fear among people so that they think the government is powerful enough to target even opposition parties. In that context, I spoke. I never said that he is a terrorist. I said that he and his government are terrorizing people by using these institutions. That is what I meant”, Kharge said.
PM Modi has faced lot of personal attacks from the opposition ever since he became the CM of Gujarat back in 2002 and Kharge’s latest remark is in a long line of such attacks. However, Modi’s popularity has kept growing despite such attacks, and the Indian opposition refuses to learn its lesson.
