NEW DELHI — Delivering a stern message after senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya’s MLA son courted controversy by assaulting a government official, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said such incidents bring a bad name to the party and are unacceptable.
According to sources, he told the BJP parliamentary party meeting that “Whoever it may be, whoever’s son he may be... such arrogance, misbehaviour cannot be tolerated”.
“Manmaani nahi chalegi,” he said in Hindi, meaning one cannot get away doing whatever he or she wishes.
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Though the prime minister did not mention any incident, it was clearly a reference to BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya’s attack an anti-encroachment team with a cricket bat last week in Indore. He was subsequently arrested and later released on bail.
The MLA’s father Kailash Vijayvargiya is a BJP national general secretary and was in the meeting when Modi deplored the incident.
The prime minister said such incidents bring the party a bad name and are unacceptable. “If somebody commits a mistake, there should be a sense of apology as well,” he said.
The MLA had defended his action and refused to apologise.
At the first parliamentary party meeting held after he led the BJP to a massive win in the recent Lok Sabha polls, Modi was felicitated by senior leaders.
Party chief Amit Shah and its working president JP Nadda were also felicitated, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters.
Joshi said Modi will launch the BJP’s membership drive from Varanasi on 6 July during which, the prime minister told party workers, at least five trees should be planted in every booth across the country.
Modi dubbed the plantation exercise as “panchvati”, which according to the Ramayana, was the place where Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman had stayed in exile for 14 years.
In his address, he asked party MPs to ensure their presence in Parliament during the ongoing session and added that they should also dedicate themselves to people’s service so that they are known for what they have done for the masses, Joshi said.
He expressed his unhappiness at the poor attendance of party MPs when triple talaq bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
While Modi will launch the membership drive from Varanasi , Shah will kick it off in Telangana and other party leaders in different parts of the country. 6 July is the birth anniversary of BJP ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.