BJP MLA from Rajasthan Kailash Choudhary called Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi a “traitor” and said he should be hanged and shot for voicing his support for students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
The MLA from Barmer’s Baytoo constituency, who was speaking at a farmers’ gathering on Wednesday, lashed out at the Gandhi scion for siding with the “anti-national” students.
“Wherever anti-national and pro-Pakistan slogans are raised, Rahul Gandhi goes and sides with those people. If Rahul Gandhi, who is called the ‘Rajkumar’ of Congress, goes and sides with these people, stands with them and supports them then it is treason,” Mr Choudhary said in his constituency.
“Rahul Gandhi is a traitor. Such a traitor should be punished, hanged and shot,” he added.
Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot condemned the BJP MLA’s statement. He said that the statement was not only objectionable, but it also exposed the “BJP’s real character”. Calling it a criminal act, he demanded that the BJP immediately suspend the MLA and initiate legal proceedings.
Meanwhile, two Jaipur-based lawyers Vibhuti Bhushan and Vipul Sharma have filed an application in a lower court seeking an FIR against BJP president Amit Shah and MLA Kailash Choudhary under IPC Sections 115, 116, 153, 153 (B) and 166.
“We have filed the application asking the court to give direction to the police for registering a case against Amit Shah and Kailash Choudhary. It was after Amit Shah called Rahul a traitor that BJP MLA from Baytoo Kailash Choudhary gave a provocative speech wherein he too called Rahul a traitor and demanded his hanging,” Vibhuti Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Rajasthan high court. He said statements from both Mr Shah and Mr Choudhary qualify for abetment for murder under Section 115 of the IPC.
A group of Youth Congress workers demonstrated outside Mr Choudhary’s house in Baytoo. They burnt an effigy of him and shouted slogans against him and the BJP. However, the matter took an ugly turn when the Youth Congress workers blackened Mr Choudhary’s nameplate at his home in Baytoo and smeared the walls with the slogan “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad”. The demonstrators said that they would not tolerate any loose talk against their leader.
However, the BJP MLA was unfazed by the protests and remained firm on his statement, saying he would not change it.
