‘Even Your Pet Dog...?’: Uproar Over Mallikarjun Kharge’s Comments in Parliament
Leader of the House Piyush Goyal demanded an apology from the Congress chief in the parliament.
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge (centre).
(Photo: LSTV screengrab)
Congress President’s Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks on the role of the RSS in the freedom struggle and the Bharatiya Janata Party's silence over India-China clashes triggered massive uproar in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, 20 December.
“Has even your pet dog at home died for the country? Still, they (BJP) claim to be patriots and if we say something we are termed as deshdrohi (anti-nationals)," Kharge said yesterday, while addressing a rally in Rajasthan.
Kharge also raised the issue of the rising tensions along the Indo-China border, saying that "The BJP government talk like a lion, but if you actually see, they act like a mouse.”
In retaliation, on Tuesday, Leader of the House Piyush Goyal demanded an apology from the Congress chief in the parliament.
"We condemn Mallikarjun Kharge's comments, the way he used offensive language and tried to spread a lie. He should apologise for using offensive language in Alwar," Goyal iterated, triggering chaos in the House.
In response to the uproar, Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar underlined, "The country's 135 crore people are watching us. It is possible that someone got carried away and said something outside… You are not children."
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)