UP minister holds dharna on highway, demands Rahul's apology over insult to PM's mother

Raebareli (UP), Sep 10 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Minister Dinesh Pratap Singh on Wednesday sat on a dharna at a highway to stop local MP Rahul Gandhi's convoy and demanded an apology for alleged abuses hurled at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother by a person during Congress' Vote Adhikar Yatra in Bihar.

The minister and his supporters sat on dharna at the highway at Kathwara while Gandhi was on his way to Harchandpur.

The BJP workers raised slogans holding placards on which "Rahul Go Back" and "Desh ki Maon se Maafi Maango" (apologise to all the mothers in the country) were written.

Singh later claimed that Gandhi took a diversion to reach his destination due to fear of the BJP workers.

Talking to reporters, Singh said, "Rahul Gandhi also has a mother. He should not give anyone the right to abuse someone else's mother. He should have condemned those who used such words for a mother. He should have said that he does not support them, that he would punish them, remove them from the party, and express regret over their mistake." He said if the Congress leader had spoken against the alleged abuse, people would have considered it appropriate.

"Instead, Rahul Gandhi seems to encourage them further, as if he wants more such abusive remarks to be made against mothers. This protest in Raebareli was against that," the minister said.

Last week, a purported video of a person screaming an expletive into a microphone at a small podium erected by a local Congress leader on the outskirts of Bihar's Darbhanga went viral, even as the organiser claimed that no party functionary of consequence was present at the time.

The 25-year-old Darbhanga resident who made the comments has been arrested but tempers continue to be frayed, with the BJP hitting the streets over the issue and its workers entering into fisticuffs with Congress leaders at the opposition party's state headquarters.

In his first reaction to the incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on September 2 said he was "deeply pained", but asserted that while he might forgive the RJD and the Congress, the people of the state will never "pardon them".

"My late mother had nothing to do with politics. What was her fault? Why was she abused?" he had asked, choking with emotion.

"I may forgive them for once, but the people of this country have never brooked any insult to one's mother. It is now the duty of every son of Bihar to hold the RJD-Congress combine accountable for their conduct. In every town and street, wherever their leaders go, they must get the message loud and clear that insult to mothers and sisters will not be tolerated," Modi had said. PTI ABN COR ABN RUK RUK