Highlights
- Singh alleged PM claimed to be from an extremely backward class though Gujarat has no EBC category
- Singh described the PM as 'Bahurupiya’ and 'Dhongi'
- "There's no EBC in Gujarat, only OBC," Lalan Singh said
Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday defended JD(U) President Lalan Singh's 'highly objectionable and unparliamentary' words against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Singh drew flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after he alleged PM Modi claimed to be from an extremely backward class though Gujarat has no EBC category.
While Singh on Saturday refused to apologise for the comments he made, RJD leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav asserted that the JD(U) head did the right thing by attacking the PM directly.
On Friday, Singh described the PM as 'Bahurupiya’ (one who lives in many guises) and 'Dhongi' (who does not provide correct information) and asserted that Modi roamed around the country in 2014 claiming to be from an extremely backward class though there is no EBC category in Gujarat.
"There's no EBC in Gujarat, only OBC. He (Modi) didn't even belong to the OBC. When he became the Gujarat chief minister, he added his caste to the OBC list. He's a duplicate, not an original," the JD(U) leader had said.
Condemning Singh's remarks, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Whatever he (Singh) has said against the PM is highly objectionable and unparliamentary. Lalan Singh should not forget that he won the parliamentary election in 2019 only because of PM Modi."
Such statements are not acceptable at all, the former union minister said.
Another senior BJP leader and Union minister of state for home affairs, Nityanand Rai, claimed that JD(U) leaders are anti-poor.
"They just cannot digest the fact that a person like Narendra Modi, who belonged to the marginalised section of society, became the prime minister of India," Rai said.
The JD(U) chief, however, defended his remarks on the PM's caste status and claimed he did not use any "unparliamentary language".
"What would you call someone who tries to mislead people by furnishing wrong information? What foul word did I use? Let me tell you that 'Bahurupiya' and 'Dhongi' are not unparliamentary words," Singh told reporters.
He was also strongly backed by ally RJD, with Tejashwi Prasad Yadav saying that Lalan Singh had done nothing wrong.
"He did the right thing by launching a direct attack on the PM," Yadav told reporters who sought his comments on Singh's remark.
(With inputs from PTI)
