NEW DELHI, Dec 13: The senior Congress leader Raja Pateria was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police on Tuesday from his residence in Panna for allegedly calling people to “kill” the prime minister Narendra Modi during an address to the party workers in Pawai town earlier this week.
Pateria had allegedly given a call to “kill” Modi to save the Constitution and the future of minorities and Dalits while addressing party workers at a meeting in Panna district’s Pawai sparking off a huge controversy.
On Tuesday morning, the police arrested Pateria from his house in Panna after an FIR was registered against the Congress leader. While the BJP lashed out at the party, Pateria claimed he had been misunderstood. The Congress has sent him a show-cause notice.
Speaking to a group of workers on Sunday, a former minister Pateria can be heard in a video saying, “Any pressure from the government or administration needs to be resisted. I know him (district Congress chief) since he was the president of the Youth Congress. If he has taken your guarantee, he will not back down. I am repeating what I had said yesterday, that Modi will finish the elections. He will divide along the lines of religion, caste, and language. The lives of minorities, Dalits and Vanvasis (tribals) are in danger. If we have to save the Constitution, you have to be ready to kill Modi. Hatya (murder) in the sense harane ka kaam karo (work to defeat him).”
Soon after his statement went viral, BJP leaders hit out at the Congress and its leaders. The Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “The reality of those doing the drama Bharat Jodo Yatra is coming to the fore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi resides in the heart of the masses, he is the centre of reverence and faith of the entire country. When the Congress cannot compete with him on the ground, the Congress leader is talking about killing Modi.”
Pateria, who is a vice president in the Pradesh Congress Committee has clarified that his idols are Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, BR Ambedkar, and Ram Manohar Lohiya. “My statement was misunderstood. I did not mean to literally kill the Prime Minister but to defeat him in elections. It was about defeating the government that is the supporter of (Nathuram) Godse’s ideology instead of Mahatma Gandhi’s,” he said.
Pateria is from Hatta tehsil in Damoh district. He started his political career with the Congress in 1971 in Jabalpur while studying at a science college. He was elected to public office for the first time after he won an Assembly by-election from Hatta in 1992. He successfully won his second term from Hatta in 1998 and found a place in the Digvijaya Singh-led government. He served as the state minister for technical education, medical education, and Information Technology from 1998 to 2003.
During this period, he also was placed in charge of Panna district. Subsequently, after Hatta was declared a seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Pateria began expanding his reach in Panna and was given a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election in 2009 from Khajuraho. But he lost to the BJP by a margin of over 27,000 votes and in 2014 by more than 2.5 lakh votes.
Pateria is often referred to as a leader with Samajwadi ideology and is believed to be a part of the Digvijaya Singh camp in the state Congress. This is not the first time he has made a controversial statement while proving his point. According to sources, in a recent interview to a news channel when asked if more Congress MLAs could defect to the BJP, Pateria allegedly said, “In this age, one cannot trust his wife, these are still MLAs.”
(Manas Dasgupta)