Bengaluru, 26 March

BJP and Congress on Tuesday traded charges over Kannada and Culture Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi’s remark that students and youths chanting ‘Modi Modi’ should be slapped.

Addressing Congress workers in Koppal on Sunday, Tangadagi said BJP leaders should be ashamed of seeking votes as they are incompetent to do even a single development work and failed to provide 2 crore jobs every year.

Senior BJP leader and party's former general secretary CT Ravi said it was a sacrilege on the part of Congress to assign a Culture portfolio to Tangadagi, who spoke in an uncultured manner.

Tangadagi said his statement in colloquial language was taken out of context. He asked whether BJP leaders can answer what happened to the Prime Minister's promise of 2 crore jobs every year. "BJP is staging a demonstration based on my speech in a colloquial language. I challenge them to suspend Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur for his statement that whoever protests against the prime minister should be shot dead," the minister said.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi who is in the fray from Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency condemned the statement and said he was exploring legal options against Tangadagi. "I ask the Congress party to show how strong your ‘hand’ is. Today, more than 70 to 80 per cent of youth are chanting 'Modi-Modi’. They are chanting on their own before Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramiah.," Joshi told reporters in Hubballi.

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar defended Tangadagi, saying that he made his statement in colloquial language and did not mean what he said. PTI