Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (BG)
Mangalore, Mar 2: The members of the DK district BJP held a protest against union external affairs minister Salman Khurshid for his defamatory statements against Gujarat chief minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Khurshid had called Modi 'impotent' at a recent rally in Farukkhabad in Uttar Pradesh.
The protest was held in front of the district BJP office on Sunday March 2. The protesters later expressed their anger by burning the effigy of Salman Khurshid.
Addressing the protesters, BJP veteran leader Ravishankar Mijar said, "Congress is stunned by the NaMo wave sweeping the country, hence its leaders are passing such defamatory and intolerable statements. Earlier Mani Shankar Aiyar had made 'Chai' (tea) remarks against Modi and now he is regretting it as the slogan 'Chaiwala for PM' has spread across the nation."
He further said, "Nearly 67% of the total voting population in the country has chosen Modi as the next PM, but the foreign affairs minister is speaking nonsense. We can also speak ill about them, but we are cultured people and we do not want to do that. Whenever they speak ill of Modi, it has been favouring Modi and backfiring on Congress," he said.
"Khurshid has also urged the US embassy not to grant visa to Modi. This shows the sorry state of our nation where we have such an uncultured foreign affairs minister," he added.
District BJP president Pratap Simha Nayak said, "Election is a must in democracy and we have the right to choose our leader. These elections must be taken with a good spirit. A person must be judged by his surrounding and his culture and not by the clothes he wears. Khurshid has a good dressing sense but his words point out at his culture. His words should not be accepted in this country.
"Let them change their behaviour and develop a sensible strategy among themselves and take elections in that sense and nothing else. If they fail to follow this, they will be the ones to lose their self-respect," he said.
Leaders Sudhir Shetty Kannur, Vedavyas Kamath, Roopashri D Bangera, Surendra J, Nithin Kumar, Jayanthi Achar, Premanand Shetty, Kiran Rai, Guruprasad and others were present.