NEW DELHI: Three senior ministers on Monday hit out at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for his comment that he would not die before PM Narendra Modi was removed from office and said Modi was not PM at Congress’s suffering.
After a bout of dizziness while addressing a poll rally in Kathua in J&K on Sunday, Kharge had said he would not die until Modi was removed from office.Later, Modi had called Kharge to ask about his health.
“Yesterday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge ji outperformed himself, his leaders and his party in being absolutely distasteful and disgraceful in his speech. In a bitter display of spite, he unnecessarily dragged PM Modi into his personal health matters by saying he would die only after removing PM Modi from power,” Shah said.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh jibed at Kharge by saying the Congress president could look forward to a long life as Modi would remain PM for several years to come. “I pray to God that you live till 125 years and till then Modi ji will remain Prime Minister,” Singh said, while his colleague Nirmala Sitharaman said Kharge’s statement showed the hate and fear Congress people had for the PM.
Kharge responded to Shah by saying the home minister should “focus on serious issues like Manipur, census and caste census”.
Writing a day after Kharge became ill and Modi called him to ask about his health, Shah wrote on X, “As for the health of Kharge ji, Modi ji prays, I pray and we all pray that he lives a long, healthy life. May he continue to live for many years and may he live to see the creation of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.”
“Aptly said, home minister Amit Shah ji,” Sitharaman wrote on X.
Reacting to Shah’s statement, Kharge’s communications in-charge and AICC secretary Pranav Jha said, “What is Amit Shah objecting to? He is objecting that the Congress chief spoke about removing BJP from power, about defeating them… It is the people of the country, people of the state who defeat someone. The HM just wanted to prove his loyalty to the PM. There was nothing objectionable as such.”