A Heckle That Wasn't, Half A Sentence, Then M Kharge's 'Baap' Line: How 'PM Modi Insulted' Row Began

Four words in Hindi rang across a hall in Patna on Sunday: "Modi kahin nahin jayega (PM Narendra Modi won't go anywhere)." Mallikarjun Kharge reacted immediately and angrily to a heckle that wasn't. "Modi ka baap bhi jayega (Even his father will have to go)," the Congress chief said, repeating himself thrice, raising the right arm high for emphasis. The man who said the four words, though, said his sentence wasn't heard in full, and that he meant the exact opposite.It was already too late for nuance.Kharge's 'baap' retort has by now drawn in multiple ministers and the whole roster of BJP leaders demanding an apology from the veteran leader. The ruling party has announced a nationwide series of protests on the issue. The Lost 'Unless'"I was actually saying, 'Unless the public revolts, Modi will not go," said the not-a-heckler Santosh Kumar, after he'd received a beating and been thrown out of the venue. That "unless" bit was lost in the din, twice over -- first inside a Congress hall and then in the BJP's chorus.Santosh Kumar was in the audience at an event marking the 139th birth anniversary of Shri Krishna Singh, Bihar's first chief minister.Kharge was speaking on the alleged electoral fraud that has fuelled a series of protests by the Congress-led Opposition and the youth Group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in recent weeks. After Santosh Kumar's exchange with Kharge, several other attendees surrounded the man, threw him to the ground, beat him, and threw him out of the hall, assuming him to be a Trojan Horse.Outside, Santosh Kumar sought to prove his true credentials by shouting, "Narendra Modi has done nothing for the country in 12 years as PM! The whole country is now rising against him! We need a massive public revolt!"No count of sentences or decibels could now trump the earlier half-sentence, which took on a life of its own.Each side has already found what it was looking for.Chorus For ApologyHome Minister Amit Shah said in a post on X that Kharge's jibe showed how the Congress had "torn apart all norms of decorum". He placed the remark in a longer list: "They have hurled insults at his revered mother, called him 'merchant of death', and mocked his poverty by calling him 'chaiwala'."Senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan, who recently lost the education ministry after a mass protest by the CJP over paper leaks, asked whether the Congress had run out of arguments against the PM. BJP chief Nitin Nabin said the Opposition resorts to personal attacks as it has no issues left to debate. BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha used the words "disgusting, petulant, uncouth".READ | 'Baap' Comment Latest In M Kharge's Series Of Jibes At PM ModiSambit Patra's comment pointedly showed how Santosh Kumar's later clarifications meant nothing in the narrative. The BJP MP and spokesperson insisted, "Congress workers themselves, at a party meeting where their national president was speaking, appeared convinced that Rahul Gandhi was not capable of leading the party to victory... Even an ordinary Congress worker seems to understand this."The Congress worker in question, by his own account, wanted a "revolt" against the BJP regime. He just wasn't heard in full.Union Minister Giriraj Singh, meanwhile, sought to settle the very question the half-sentence raised.He said PM Modi, who turned 76 this year, "will stay in power for at least another 30 years".The Congress, too, continued to misread Santosh Kumar. Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram told NDTV that he was a BJP supporter who said "BJP-type things". When told that Santosh Kumar had described himself as a Congressman who was only offering a suggestion, Ram was unpersuaded: "Whatever his statement may be, would any Congressman make such a statement?"READ | Mallikarjun Kharge Writes To PM Modi, Seeks All-Party Meet To Discuss DelimitationLost In The EchoBy Sunday evening, the half-heard Santosh Kumar had been described by the BJP as a disillusioned Congress worker; by the Congress as a BJP supporter; and by himself as someone who wants PM Modi gone from power.As for Kharge's choice of words and the father analogy, the Bihar Congress chief said the intention was not to hurt anyone: "Circumstances became such". Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput said Kharge was only using an idiom: "PM Modi has said much worse comments."Srinivas BV, head of the Congress Seva Dal, took the same line, listing the ex-PMs verbally attacked by PM Modi: "What about the abuse you people hurl day and night at Nehru ji, Indira ji, Rajiv...?" He added, "All the thieves will go to jail."The prediction that someone would go to jail, or go from power, was where the whole episode had begun. Kharge was speaking of sending the current lot of government leaders to jail when the Congress comes to power. The words "Modi won't go anywhere" then rang in the hall. The rest of the story wrote itself.(Inputs by ANI, Anil Rai, Shivam Kumar)