Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday condemned BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya assaulting a civic official and delivered a strong message against “bad behaviour and arrogance.”
The Madhya Pradesh MLA, who is also the son of BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayavargiya, recently hit the headlines for assaulting a government official. A video clip of the incident was circulated widely. He was arrested and upon his release on bail, according to reports, he received a ceremonial welcome from his supporters with gun shots being fired.
His father attributed his outrageous conduct to him being a “novice”.
But the PM is said to have taken a serious note of the incident in the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday, saying that “Whoever it may be, whosoever son he may be... such arrogance and bad behaviour cannot be tolerated”. Kailash Vijayvargiya was in the meeting when Modi condemned the incident.
Though the Prime Minister reportedly did not mention the incident specifically, it was clearly a reference to Akash Vijayvargiya’s attack on an anti-encroachment team with a cricket bat last week in Indore. “ Manmaani nahi chalegi (you cannot do what you please),” he said.
The PM said such incidents bring a bad name to the party and are unacceptable. “If somebody commits a mistake, there should be a sense of apology as well,” he said.
The MLA had defended his action and refused to apologise.
PM felicitated
This was the first Parliamentary Party meeting held after he led the BJP to a massive win in the recent Lok Sabha polls and the PM was duly felicitated by senior leaders. Party chief Amit Shah and its working president JP Nadda were also felicitated, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters.
Joshi said Modi will launch the BJP’s membership drive from Varanasi on July 6 when, the Prime Minister will ask party workers to plant at least five trees in every booth across the country.
Modi dubbed the tree planting drive as panchvati , which according to the Ramayana, was the place where Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman had stayed in exile for 14 years.
In his address, he asked party MPs to be present in Parliament during the ongoing session and added that they should also dedicate themselves to people’s service so that they are known for what they have done for the public, Joshi said.
He expressed his disappointment at the poor attendance of party MPs when the Triple Talaq bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
While Modi will launch the membership drive from Varanasi, Shah will kick it off in Telangana. July 6 is the birth anniversary of BJP ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.