A Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh, Surendra Singh, on Tuesday, called West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Surpanakha. Surpanakha was the sister of Ravana, the ruler of Lanka who had abducted Sita in the Ramayana epic.
“The Lakshman who will kill Surpanakha has been born, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and [BJP National President] Amit Shah,” a video shows Singh saying at a rally. “The pair of Modi and Shah will cut this Surpanakha’s nose too.”
Clarifying his remarks, Singh told the media later that Banerjee was “doing nothing” even as people were being killed on the streets of West Bengal. “Hindus are unsafe in Bengal,” the MLA said in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh.
“If this continues, Bengal will become a Jammu and Kashmir,” Singh continued. “The building will be in the name of [a] Ghanshyam Singh, but a Muslim would be staying there”. He said that under the leadership of Modi, all “anti-nationals” and “terrorists” who had entered India from outside would be forced to return.
Modi had on Sunday warned lawmakers against speaking out of turn on “every sociopolitical or cultural matter” as the media would only pick up the “masala” bit.
Surendra Singh had earlier questioned the alleged rape of a teenager in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, a case in which another BJP MLA is an accused. Singh claimed nobody could rape a mother of three children. The Unnao rape complainant is 17 years old.
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