"Anyone Who Speaks Language Of Pakistan Should Be Put In Jail": Eknath Shinde

Coming down heavily on the Congress party over its leader Vijay Wadettiwar's remarks on the 26/11 attacks, CM Eknath Shinde on Tuesday said that anyone who speaks the language of Pakistan while living in this country should be put in jail.

Mr Wadettiwar, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly stoked controversy over his statement on the 26/11 attack. He claimed that former ATS chief Hemant Karkare was "not killed by terrorists during the 26/11 attack but by a police official close to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh."

Referring to this, Mr Shinde said, "The whole country is with us at this time but the INDIA alliance is with Pakistan. They have started speaking the language of Pakistan. Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar was fine when he was with Shiv Sena, but deteriorated after joining Congress. Anyone who speaks the language of Pakistan while living in this country should be put in jail. The public will teach them a lesson."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also hit out at the Congress over Wadettiwar's remarks and asked: "What is the relation between the party and the terrorists".

Citing Acharya Pramod Krishnam's remarks, he also said that Congress will overturn the Ram Mandir verdict if it comes to power.

Addressing a public meeting in Maharashtra's Beed, PM Modi said, "The leaders of Maharashtra Congress are giving clean chit to terrorists of 26/11. The 10 terrorists including Kasab, who had come from Pakistan, it seems Congress is having some relationship with them. The country wants to know the relationship between Congress and those terrorists. 'Yeh rishta kya kehlata hai'."

Further, during his address, Prime Minister Modi took a jibe at the Opposition over its performance in the Lok Sabha polls, he said, "The INDI-Aghadi got 'past' (exhausted) in the first phase, 'dhwast' (collapsed) in the second phase. In the third phase, if somewhere any 'diya' was left flickering, it too has extinguished."

"Not just this, the INDI alliance even wants to cancel the Ram Mandir. A leader who was associated with Congress for 20-25 years and left the party recently, made a startling revelation. After the Supreme Court judgement on Ram Mandir, Shehzada (jibe on Rahul Gandhi) had told party leaders that they would overturn the court order. Similarly, for appeasement, his father (Rajiv Gandhi) had also overturned the SC order on Triple Talaq," he added.

Maharashtra, with its 48 Lok Sabha seats, is the second-largest contributor to the lower house of Parliament. The polling is being held in five phases: April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP emerged as the largest party with 23 seats, followed by its ally Shiv Sena (undivided) with 18 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party (undivided) and Congress could only win four and one seats each.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)