Senior Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Raja Pateria has courted a massive controversy after he was purportedly heard saying in a viral video that the masses should be ready for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s murder in order to save the constitution. After several BJP supporters demanded his arrest, he claimed he meant defeating Modi.
In the alleged video, Pateria can be seen addressing a small assembly in what appears to be a rural region. He tells the masses, “Modi will divide people in the name of religion, caste and language. The future of the minorities and tribals is in peril. If you want to save the Constitution, be ready for Modi’s ‘hatya’. Hatya in the sense of defeating him”.
The Congress leader later clarified his comment and said by murder he meant defeating him in an electoral contest. He called himself the man who adheres to Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology of non-violence and that he meant it was necessary to defeat Modi to protect minorities.
Senior BJP politician and MP home minister, Narottam Mishra has reportedly ordered an FIR at a police station in the state’s Panna.
He said the remark proves the present Congress is on Mussolini, not of Mahatma Gandhi.
Raja Pateria is a former MLA. He won the Hatta Assembly constituency in 1998. From 1998 to 2003, he was a cabinet minister in the Digvijaya Singh government. He is currently the vice-president of the MP Congress committee.
In 2014, Raja Pateria contested the Lok Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho seat. He reportedly lost to BJP’s Narendra Singh and received 2, 27,476 votes.
According to his election affidavit, his and his wife’s profession is agriculture.
