New Delhi, April 7 (Inditop) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday demanded the removal of Railways Minister Lalu Prasad for his alleged threatening remarks against the party’s jailed leader Varun Gandhi.
BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Lalu Prasad from the cabinet.
The opposition party also sent a letter to the Election Commission urging it to take action against the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and file a criminal complaint against him for his remarks against Varun Gandhi at a rally in Bihar Monday.
At a rally in Bihar Monday, the RJD chief said if he had been the home minister he would have run a “roller” over Varun Gandhi who has been jailed for his hate speeches against Muslims.
“If I were the country’s home minister, and if Varun had said this (inflammatory speeches), then I would have run a roller over his chest,” Lalu Prasad said.
Reacting sharply to Lalu Prasad’s comments, the BJP, in the letter to the poll panel said: “The job profile of India’s home minister, as per Lalu Prasad’s expectation, appears to be crude. Thank god for small mercies, he has not put to use his exaggerated powers as railways minister to crush opponents on the rail track.”
“Such a statement coming from a central cabinet minister is extremely unbecoming. It breaches the model code of conduct which eschews creation of mutual hatred and causing tension,” the BJP letter added.
The BJP spokesperson said the RJD chief’s statement has “brought to fore the rank communalism being practised by the so-called secular parties as a part of their vote bank politics”.
“In the case of Varun Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi were quick to react. One expects them to show the same level of promptness in this case as well. The least Manmohan Singh can do is to sack Lalu Prasad with immediate effect,” Punj said.
