Reacting to his controversial remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said that if his statement has hurt anyone, he will express regret for it. This comes after the Congress chief, while addressing a public meeting in Kalaburagi, on Thursday said, “PM Modi is like a ‘poisonous snake’, you might think it is poison or not. If you lick it, you are dead.”
After this kicked up a controversy, Kharge clarified that his remarks were meant for the BJP and not for the Prime Minister. “All I said there was this. We have ideological differences. The RSS-BJP's ideology is poisonous. But they compared it to the Prime Minister and claimed that Kharge commented about him. Let me clarify. It has never been my intent to speak about one person or hurt one person ever.”
“If my statement has hurt anyone, if it was misconstrued and distressed anyone, I will express special regret for it. It isn't right to twist my statements but my fight against RSS-BJP, its ideology & people who support it will continue unabated,” Kharge said.
Earlier, Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday demanded the Congress’s apology over Kharge’s remarks. “Congress made Mallikarjun Kharge the party president but nobody considers him that, so he thought of giving a statement which is worse than that given by Sonia Gandhi. Congress should apologise to the nation,” Thakur said.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, too, demanded an apology from Kharge. “Mallikarjun Kharge is a senior leader and president of Congress. What does he want to tell the world? Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of our country and the whole world respects him and using such language for the PM shows the level to which Congress has stooped. We want him (Kharge) to apologise to the country,” she said.
The war of words between the two national parties is heating up in Karnataka ahead of the assembly elections scheduled on May 10, with counting of votes on May 13.