- Tuesday, April 29, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
It is not that the opposition parties in India and their leaders have launched scathing attacks on prime minister Narendra Modi, including labelling him as a ‘Maut ka Saudagar’ (merchant of death).
But recently, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, the country’s main opposition party, courted a massive controversy by purportedly telling people that they should be ready for Modi’s murder in order to save the country’s constitution. A video of the incident went viral following which, several leaders of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought his arrest.
Raja Pateria, a former legislator and minister in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, was seen addressing a small gathering of people in what appears to be a rural area. He was heard saying, “Modi will divide people in the name of religion, caste and language. The future of the minorities and tribals is in peril. If you want to save the Constitution, be ready for Modi’s ‘hatya’ (murder). Hatya in the sense of defeating him”.
The leader, who is currently the vice president of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, later clarified his remark saying that by murder, he meant defeating Modi in an electoral contest. Pateria also called himself as someone who follows Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology of non-violence and that he meant that Modi’s defeat is necessary in order to protect the minorities.
He told India Today, “It might have happened in the flow. But the person who recorded it just picked it out of context.”
Madhya Pradesh home minister and senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra reportedly ordered a first information report at a police station in Panna area of the state.
Senior BJP politician and MP home minister, Narottam Mishra has reportedly ordered an FIR at a police station in the state’s Panna.
“I heard the statement of Pateria, which clearly implies that this Congress party does not belong to Mahatma Gandhi,” Mishra was quoted as saying by India Today.
“This Congress belongs to Italy, and its ideology is of Mussolini. I am issuing an instruction to SP to register an FIR,” he added.
Madhya Pradesh will go to elections in 2023, a year before India goes to its next general polls.
