Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) parliamentarian Misa Bharti has trigged a controversy by publicly expressing her “wish” to chop off the hands of federal minister Ram Kripal Yadav for joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Yadav, once a close associate of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, crossed over to the BJP ahead of last 2014 Lok Sabha polls and scored over Bharti in the battle of ballots.
Bharti, who is the eldest daughter of RJD chief Prasad, expressed her distaste for Yadav, federal minister of state for rural development, while addressing a public meeting in Patna a couple of days back but the matter came to light after the video of her speech went viral in the social media.
She is apparently angry at the way Yadav, who was groomed by her father, not only ditched the party but also went on publicising a book written by BJP leader and Bihar’s deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. The book carries details of a series of exposures made by Modi on how Prasad and his family allegedly made money and indulged in corrupt practices.
“Mr Lalu Prasad had mentored Ram Kripal Yadav and I too used to respect him a lot but the day I saw him during the launch of the book, I felt like chopping his hands with the same axe with which he once used to cut fodder for animals,” Bharti is heard saying in a video which has now gone viral.
She has kicked off her own campaign from the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat although the seat-sharing issue is yet to be finalised and seats are yet to be distributed among the Grand Alliance partners.
The BJP flayed the RJD parliamentarian for using such derogatory language against the party leader. Strangely, the BJP leaders have, quite often, used the “hand-chopping” remarks against their rivals and others in public.
Last year, Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai had threatened to “chop off” hands of those pointing fingers at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He withdrew his remarks later after it drew severe condemnations from all quarters.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the son of a poor man and he should be honoured. Any fingers or hands raised at him should be either broken or chopped off,” he had declared, addressing a function in Patna in November last year. He said Modi faced many hardships in his childhood before reaching to this position.
Before him, federal minister of state for health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey had made similar comments while he served as the health minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar. He had issued threats to chop off hands of striking doctors in 2012.
“I will not be cowed down by threats and if doctors do not agree, we will chop off their hands,” Choubey had told the media but amended his sentence later saying he used this phrase as a metaphor and didn’t mean to bodily harm the doctors.
