Mallikarjun Kharge likens PM Modi to ‘poisonous’ snake in an election rally, clarifies later

NEW DELHI: In a scathing personal remark against the Prime Minister, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday compared Narendra Modi with a “poisonous snake”. He later offered an apology for his remark and clarified that he wasn’t referring to Modi but the ideology of BJP.
“PM Modi is like a ‘poisonous snake’, you might think it’s poison or not. If you lick it, you’re dead,” Kharge said earlier today during a rally in Kalaburagi in poll-bound Karnataka.
Kharge’s strong remark expectedly drew the ire of BJP with various party leaders lashing out at the Congress president.
Karnataka chief minister Basavraj Bommai said that Congress is unable to fight PM Modi politically and this kind of thinking is borne out of that desperation.
“There is a poison in the mind of Kharge. It’s a prejudiced mind towards PM Modi and BJP. This kind of thinking comes because of desperation as they are unable to fight him politically and they are seeing that their ship is sinking… People will teach them a lesson,” Bommai said.
Union minister Anurag Thakur said that the remark made by Kharge was worse than Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ka saudagar” dig at PM Modi.
“Congress made Mallikarjun Kharge the party president but nobody considers him that, so he thought of giving a statement which is worse than that given by Sonia Gandhi,” Union minister Anurag Thakur said.
BJP leader and Union minister Shobha Karandlaje chastised Kharge for using “such language” despite being a senior leader.
“Mallikarjun Kharge is a senior leader and president of Congress. What does he want to tell the world? PM Narendra Modi is the PM of our country and the whole world respects him and using such language for PM shows the level to which Congress has stooped,” she said, adding that Kharge must apologise to the country.
Following the massive uproar, Kharge expressed “special regret” over his remarks.
“If my statement has hurt anyone, if it was misconstrued and distressed anyone, I will express special regret for it,” Kharge said.
“We have ideological differences. RSS-BJP’s ideology is poisonous. But they compared it to Prime Minister and claimed that I commented about him. It was never my intention to speak about any person or hurt anyone,” he clarified again.
Earlier too, Kharge had said that his remarks were not meant for PM Modi. “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,” he had said.
Kharge has taken several digs at Prime Minister Narendra Modi since assuming charge as the Congress president.
Earlier, in February, Kharge had trained his guns on PM Modi, claiming that his arrogance is “dangerous” for the country and the democracy.
Later, Kharge took a dig at Modi over the Adani issue, alleging that the Prime Minister is using public money to favour the businessman.
He also said that Modi should stop calling himself the anti-corruption crusader after the Prime Minister jeered the opposition parties for launching a “bhrashtachari bachao abhiyan” (save corrupt campaign) against central agencies.
While PM Modi has praised Kharge at public platforms, he has often mocked Congress for installing the Karnataka vetaran as a “remote control” president.