Cong leaders not apologising for 'abuses' against PM, instead politicising matter, claims Himanta

Guwahati, Aug 30 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday claimed that the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, instead of apologising for the alleged 'abuses' against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar, are trying to ''politicise" the matter.

BJP leaders have been attacking the Congress after a purported video showed an unidentified person using a Hindi expletive against Modi from a dais raised during the yatra in Darbhanga town, from where Rahul Gandhi, her sister Priyanka Vadra and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had left for Muzaffarpur on motorcycles on Wednesday.

PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

"Far from apologising, the Congress is trying to give a political colour by alleging that a BJP worker from Madhya Pradesh was arrested in this connection," Sarma said at a press conference here.

He also claimed, ''The Congress cannot imagine that anyone other than those from the Gandhi family can become a prime minister in the country." Asserting that the PM has taken India to "great heights" in the last 11 years, the Assam CM alleged that Congress leaders with their ''feudal mentality'' are not able to tolerate the country's rise in the world.

Speaking on Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana A Madani's allegation that Sarma was systematically targeting Muslims through the state’s eviction drives, the CM claimed, "Forces like him and others are trying to make Assam an Islamic fundamentalist state." On Madani's claim that he had written to Sonia Gandhi not to give Sarma a ticket because he had an ''RSS mindset'', the CM said that this makes it clear that ''his (Madani's) views are considered in election ticket distribution of the Congress''.

Sarma was a Congress leader before he joined the BJP in 2015.

''I and several others could not continue with the Congress because of people like Madani," Sarma added. PTI DG BDC