The BJP, on Wednesday, lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his "fight against a shakti" remarks and requested the poll panel to initiate "stringent action" against him.
According to media reports, in a memorandum to EC, BJP leaders Hardeep Singh Puri and Om Pathak alleged that the Congress leader's remarks were aimed at insulting the religious values associated with 'shakti' and creating enmity among religions.
"The statement made by Gandhi wherein he says that the fight is with Shakti was made with a malicious intention to hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus. A large section of Hindus in India offer prayers to Shakti in Hinduism to the extent there exists a Shakti sect that refers to the Devi as Shakti. Gandhi's call to fight against Shakti in Hinduism, directly implies that the Congress supporters should fight against the worshipping deities of Hinduism, which creates hatred against Hinduism," the BJP leaders claimed.
The Congress leader had clarified that he was not talking about any religious power but the 'shakti' of unrighteousness, corruption and falsehood, and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of twisting his words.
The BJP leaders also alleged that Gandhi made false and mischievous claims about the authenticity of electoral voting machines (EVMs) recently and raised questions on the Election Commission as well.
Gandhi made such remarks about EVMs and the poll panel with an "intention to create public disorder", the BJP leaders charged.
"By raising these kinds of allegations, the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, in a way, are insulting the electorate of India. Furthermore, it is pertinent to mention that in the same event, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah blatantly denounced EVMs as a thief, the BJP leaders said in their petition to the EC.
They urged the EC to direct the Congress leader to offer an unconditional public apology for his remarks. "Issue a direction to INC and Rahul Gandhi to refrain from posting, publishing, advertising and propagating the said false information through any and all means of communication either spoken, written, audio/virtually representation or otherwise," the petition said.
Further, they requested the poll panel to take steps to suspend the official handle of the Congress for spreading fake news.
