Infuriated by the abusive language BJP president Nitin Gadkari used against their leaders Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the RJD and SP on Thursday hit back, saying he had gone ?mentally bankrupt?.
Lalu Prasad asked Gadkari to hold both ears and apologise? while the SP threatened to sue him for his comments.
At a public meeting in Chandigarh on Wednesday, Gadkari mocked Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad, saying ?Unki inquiry mein kahin vakil badla, kahin affidavit daakhil hua, bade dakarte the sher jaise par kutte jaise bankar Soniaji or Congress ke ghar par talve chatne lage (lawyers were changed, fresh affidavits submitted in the inquiry against them and these leaders, who were roaring like lions, behaved like dogs, licking the feet of Sonia and the Congress)?.
Gadkari on Thursday sought to assuage them, saying they were ?respected leaders? and that he had only cited a proverb and not called them dogs. ?If my words have hurt them, I take it back,? he said. Playing down the issue, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said Gadkari had already withdrawn his statement and expressed regret. ?It is a closed chapter.?
But at a press conference in Patna, Lalu Prasad said the BJP president should ?hold both ears? and apologise: ?He called us dogs. He needlessly abused us. We will teach him a lesson… He is a coward. We will first try give Gadkari tablets to cure his mental bankruptcy, then put him on capsules and if the tablets and capsules fail, we will put him on injection.?
On Gadkari criticising the SP, RJD and BSP for not supporting the NDA during the Cut Motion, alleging that they did so out of fear of the CBI, Prasad countered that Gadkari was spearheading a campaign against the CBI to save several leaders of his party who had ?stashed black money? in Swiss banks. ?The BJP president is desperate.?
Supporters of RJD and SP burnt Gadkari?s effigy and raised slogans protesting his comments against their leaders. The Congress said Gadkari had used high derogatory language but said it was not surprised since the BJP president ?did not have the stature? of a national politician. ?Gadkari is justifying this impression with such kind of language,? party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.
Another Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan described Gadkari?s remarks as ?shocking and outrageous?, saying he should apologise to the nation for bringing politics to such a low.