Congress demands Katheria's sacking over alleged hate speech at VHP event

The Congress Party on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Ram Shankar Katheria for allegedly participating in a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) event in which Muslims were described as 'Rakshasas' and were warned of a 'final battle'.

Congress leader P.L. Punia further accused Katheria of spreading 'communal poison', stating that his offence is 'unpardonable'.

"Katheria ji is not just an MP, but he is a part of the cabinet. He has taken an oath of office. But the kind of communal poison he is spreading, it is unpardonable. He should not be in the cabinet any more. We would like tell the Prime Minister that such a person should be sacked. There would be discussions on this in both the House," he told ANI.

Meanwhile, Katheria, on his part, rubbished the reports published in a leading daily.

"The article that is published in the Indian Express is completely untrue. Therefore, it is a matter of concern that Ram Gopal Yadav, without even seeing the CD, has made such statement. I would like to appeal to him to get the complete CD from his administration and listen to the whole address," Katheria told ANI.

Samajawadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack the minister for making such inflammatory remarks.

According to reports, Katheria, along with BJP MP from Fatehpur Sikri Babu Lal, had recently attended a condolence meeting held for VHP worker Arun Mahaur, who was allegedly killed by Muslim youth, in Agra . During the meeting, several speakers threatened the Muslim community of revenge.

One of the speakers also reportedly asked the gathering to "corner Muslims and destroy the demons (rakshas).

A leading daily also quoted BJP Fatehpur Sikri MP as saying, "If you want to test Hindus, then let's decide a date and take on Muslims.