Chandigarh: Sangrur court, in Punjab, summons Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in a Rs 100 crores defamation case filed by Hitesh Bhardwaj, the founder of Hindu Suraksha Parishad, against Kharge for allegedly making defamatory remarks against Bajrang Dal during the recently concluded Karnataka elections.
According to sources, the Punjab court has summoned Mallikarjun Kharge In the ₹ 100-crore private defamation case and summons were served by the civil judge (senior division) Ramandeep Kaur who has directed Kharge to appear before her court on July 10 in Hitesh's petition.
Hitesh claimed that he was upset with the Congress drawing a parallel with Bajrang Dal and anti-national organisations and that they had promised to a ban Bajrang Dal after they came to power in Karnataka. He said that he moved the court on Thursday after he got to read the Congress manifesto wherein he found "on page number 10 of the manifesto, Congress has compared Bajrang Dal with the anti-national organisations and also promised to ban it if they win the election."
Earlier in last week of April, Kharge on Thursday said Modi was "like a poisonous snake", adding that if people "lick it, they would die," while speaking in Kalaburagi, his home constituency during electioneering to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
He later said that his comment was not directed at the PM as an individual but towards the saffron party as a whole. "It wasn't meant for PM Modi, what I meant was BJP's ideology is 'like a snake'. I never said this personally for PM Modi, what I said was their ideology is like a snake and if you try to touch it, your death is certain," Kharge said, adding fuel to the fire.
On April 24, Kharge, in a veiled statement, slammed the BJP of mixing politics and religion. "Politics and religion should not be mixed. Some parties and leaders are trying to mix them these days. Different people in one community can like different parties. Individuals in one household can have different preferences. We should not tend to club them together. Such ideas are regressive and weaken our Democracy and Constitution. My advice to BJP leaders is to not play one community against another for the greed of votes."
