Priyank Kharge hit out at Yogi Adityanath for Publicising his Family Tragedy to Divide Society

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 14: The Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge, the son of the Congress national president Mallikajun Kharge, on Thursday hit back at the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for bringing on to the public his family tragedy to create hatred for the Muslims.

In a sharp response to the Yogi’s public address during an election rally in Maharashtra that the Congress president was ignoring the killing of his family members by “Razakars” only for the sake of the Muslim vote bank, Priyank Kharge told the UP chief minister to “take his hatred elsewhere” and not to try to play divisive politics with the Kharge family.

The Karnataka minister said the atrocities against the Kharge family was committed by Razakars, not the entire Muslim community. “Every community has bad apples and individuals who do wrong” and for that the entire community could not be blamed. “So, Yogi Ji, take your hate elsewhere. You cannot bulldoze his (Mallikarjun Kharge’s) principles or his ideology. Try winning the elections on PM @narendramodi ji’s ‘achievements’ instead trying to sow seeds of hatred in the society for political gains,” the Congress leader said.

In a sharply worded rebuttal, Priyank said it was the Hyderabad Nizam’s Razakars who burned down his father’s house in 1948 and not the entire Muslim community. The Karnataka minister said his father narrowly escaped the tragedy and went on to become a nine-time MLA, two-time Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MP, a Union Minister, the Leader of the Lok Sabha, and the Congress president and he never exploited personal tragedy for “political gain” and never played “victim card.”

Mallikarjun Kharge was born in the Bidar region of erstwhile Hyderabad state, ruled by the Nizams. The veteran Congress leader’s village was burned down by the Razakars, a pro-Nizam militia, during the political unrest in Hyderabad before its integration into India. In the tragedy, Kharge lost his mother, sister and other family members.

The matter was mentioned by Yogi Adityanath during a rally in Maharashtra’s Achalpur while responding to Mallikarjun Kharge’s criticism of his “batenge toh katenge (we will perish if divided)” slogan. Countering Mallikarjun Kharge’s “leaders in the guise of sadhus” remark, Mr Adityanath referred to the Congress’s chief childhood tragedy when his mother died in arson by Razakars, a paramilitary wing that worked for the Nizam in the then princely state of Hyderabad. Mr Adityanath said Mr Kharge had “buried his feelings” for the sake of Congress’s “votebank politics.”

“These days Khargeji is getting angry with me… Khargeji, don’t get angry at me. I respect your age. If you want to get angry… get angry at the Hyderabad Nizam. The Nizam’s ‘razakars’ burnt your village, brutally killed Hindus, and burnt your respected mother, sister, and family members. Present this truth before the country – whenever they will be divided, they will be divided in the same brutal manner,” the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said.

“His village was under the Nizam of Hyderabad… when India was under the British. There was a fire… this was when Hindus were being selectively killed. And, in this fire, his home was also burned down, in which his mother and family were killed. But Khargeji does not say this… because he knows if he says it, then Muslim votes will shift. He forgot the sacrifice of his family for the sake of votes,” Mr Adityanath said.

Responding to the remarks, Mr Kharge’s son Priyank said his father narrowly escaped death during that tragic incident. “Despite the tragedy, he never exploited it for political gain, never played the victim card and never let hatred define him,” he added in a post on X. Priyank Kharge said the 82-year-old Congress chief is fighting tirelessly to uphold the values of Buddha-Basavanna-Ambedkar and to protect the Constitution.

Earlier, Mr Kharge had launched a veiled attack on the BJP leader over his “batenge to katenge” remarks that the Opposition has described as divisive. “Many (political) leaders live in the guise of sadhus and become politicians… some even become chief ministers. They wear gerua (saffron) clothes and have no hair on their heads…,” the Congress chief said, clearly referring to Mr Adityanath. “I would say… either wear white clothes or, if you are a sanyasi, get out of politics.” “On the one hand you wear gerua clothes… on the other you say ‘batenge toh katenge’. They are spreading hatred among the people and are trying to divide them,” he had said.

Hitting out at Adityanath’s divisive rhetoric, Priyank tweeted, “Your ideology fails to see Mallikarjun Kharge as an equal, it discriminates between human beings. Does that make all of you bad or those who are practicing it? Who labelled him as an ‘untouchable’ or a Dalit? The existence of a discriminatory ideology does not make everyone within a community wrong. Does it?” The Karnataka minister also asserted that his father, at 82, was fighting to uphold the Constitution against “tyranny and hatred.”