Maneka Lodges Complaint against Lalu
Taking the fight deep into the enemy camp, BJP parliamentarian Maneka Gandhi on Wednesday lodged a complaint against Union Railways Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad for allegedly telling an election rally in Kishanganj constituency of Bihar that he would have had her son – Varun Gandhi – “crushed” for his alleged anti-Muslim pronouncements.
“The RJD chief Lalu Yadav has threatened to kill Varun Gandhi by crushing him with a road roller in front of crowd of thousands of people and used derogatory words,” she was reported to have said in a letter to SSP, N Ravindran in Badaun.
“I came to know about this during my Badaun visit”, said Maneka while referring to the alleged remarks by Lalu.
She urged that police lodge a complaint against the leader under sections 504 (insult intended to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and immediately arrest him, said PTI in a report from Badaun.
Addressing an election rally in Kishanganj Lalu, who is one part of a widening rift in the ruling Congress-led UPA, attempted to kill two birds with a stone while allegedly saying: “Had I been country’s home minister, I would have crushed Varun Gandhi under the roller and destroyed him without caring for the consequences for his hate speech against Muslims.”
Lalu’s remarks came in for immediate criticism from the BJP, but the Congress has remained conspicuously silent over the implied allegations of not doing enough against Varun Gandhi.
Lalu, however, had attempted to play down the controversy on Tuesday while addressing an election rally in Jharkhand where he claimed he was quoted out of context and said: “What I meant was crushing him under the roller of law had I been the home minister.”
Kishanganj district administration had earlier filed an FIR against Lalu accusing him of touch off communal discord in the area.
