Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah has written to his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Kamal Nath to file a police complaint against Assam chief minister Himanta for allegedly making hate speeches involving the party’s MP and former party president Sonia Gandhi.
In a letter written to Nath, Borah pointed out that the Supreme Court has on April 28 directed all states and Union territories to register cases on their own against those making hate speeches.
Two days ago, the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Debabrata Saikia of the Congress filed a police complaint against Sarma, a BJP leader, for his alleged “hateful statement” that Sonia’s residence should be burnt.
In his September 21 letter, Borah alleged: “Last Monday, September 18, 2023, in a public meeting in Vidisha district, Madhya Pradesh, he (Sarma) said: ‘I want to challenge Kamal Nath, if you are a Hanuman Bhakt, Hanuman burnt Lanka, you should burn 10 Janpath’.”
The address 10, Janpath is Sonia’s residence.
Stating that any practising Hindu knows that in the Ramayana, Sita was abducted to Lanka by Ravan, Borah wondered if Sarma was trying to say that Sonia “has kidnapped someone and kept him/her forcibly in her house/garden?”
Kamal Nath. File photo
Such hate speeches should not go unchallenged, said the Congress leader who shared the letter on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
“In reference to this case, we have already filed an FIR against the chief minister in Assam. I request you, or the Madhya Pradesh Congress legal department, to do the same in your state,” Borah said in his letter to Nath.
Saikia on September 20 filed a complaint against Sarma at Nazira Police Station in Sivasagar district for his alleged hateful statement.
The BJP leader is liable to be booked under Sections 153 (provocation causing rioting) and Sections 115/436 (abetment to violence) of the IPC, Saikia said in his complaint.
A senior police official of Sivasagar district said that they were examining the complaint and were yet to decide on registering an FIR.
