Sushil Modi, deputy chief minister of Bihar, said he has decided to file a defamation suite against Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi over a remark in which he alleged that all Modis are thieves.
Speaking to the media, Sushil Modi said that Rahul Gandhi, at an election rally, said that all thieves have the Modi surname.
The alleged incident took place two days ago. “Why do all thieves have Modi in their names, whether it is Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi? We don’t know how many more such Modis will come out,” he allegedly said.
Devesh Kumar, Vice President for Bihar BJP, said it was a ‘fit’ case for filing a case, as Rahul Gandhi was trying to fan communal flames.
Modi, from the Gujarati word ‘Mode’, is the name of an ethnic group consisting of millions of people across several communities.
Some of them use the surname ‘Modi’, while others use other surnames.
“He has branded an entire community as thieves. This is something unpardonable,” Kumar said.
More seriously, he alleged, such statements have the potential to create communal targeting of Mode people.
“This is designed to create tension along caste lines, along communal lines. fan communal feelings,” he said.
This is the second case that Rahul Gandhi has found himself embroiled in in recent days. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court asked the Congress President to explain himself after Gandhi said that the Supreme Court has held that ‘Chowkidar’ — a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — was a ‘chor’ or thief.
The Supreme Court had refused to enter into details of the Rafale acquisition, after expressing satisfaction in a private explanation offered by the Government of India.