A day after Union minister Giriraj Singh stirred a controversy by calling Mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse a good son of India, JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar on Saturday shot back saying by this metric even Veerappan, Vijay Mallya, Dawood Ibrahim and dacoits of Chambal Valley are.
Giriraj Singh made the remark during his two-day visit to Dantewada in Chhattisgarh on Friday. "If Nathuram Godse is a murderer of Gandhi then he is a good son of the country. He was born in India unlike Babar and Aurangzeb who were attackers of the country."
Slamming Giriraj Singh, Neeraj Kumar said, "The killer of our father of the nation can never be a good son of the country."
"Anybody calling Nathuram Godse a good son of India, is a blot on our country. How can a killer of our 'Father of the Nation' be a good son of the country? And if Godse is the good son of the country then Veerapan, dacoits of Chambal, Vijay Malya, Dawood Ibrahim too should be called so," Kumar said.
Congress demands expulsion of Trivendra Singh Rawat
The Congress on Friday demanded expulsion of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat from the Bharatiya Janata Party for praising Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse as a 'patriot', saying it is an insult to 'Bapu' and demanded his sacking from the saffron party.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Congress leader Vaibhav Walia, who is also the party's Secretary Communications, referred to the recent remarks by Rawat where he had repeatedly said that Godse was a patriot.
Walia said it was not only an insult to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, but the entire nation itself. He added that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues praising Mahatma Gandhi, his party leaders like Rawat and another MP Pragya Thakur were glorifying his killer.
His remarks came after Rawat on Wednesday while speaking to media in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia said, "Gandhiji was killed. That is a different issue. But as far as I have understood and read Godse, he too was a patriot. We do not agree with the killing of Gandhiji."
Rawat also termed Godse a 'patriot' while mocking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for sharing his surname with the father of the nation.
(With inputs from IANS)
