Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said that he was "horrified" to see the remarks of former Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra about the Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Tharoor said that this kind of language is despicable and has "no place in our politics."
"If you have a problem with someone in our party criticize what they have said, criticize what they have done, criticize what they stand for," Tharoor said, and added, but "to criticize the colour of their skin, to criticize their origins, is shameful and it shows the low levels to which politics has succumbed in the hands of our opposition party in Karnataka...," Tharoor said in a video released on social media.
According to reports, on August 2, Jnanendra had referred to Kharge as a “burnt man” (due to the hot weather in his native Jewargi region in the state’s Kalaburagi district). Jnanendra later expressed regret for any hurt he had caused, saying that he did not intend to target Kharge specifically.
Based on a complaint lodged by Harshendra Kumar, a Dalit community leader, the Kalaburagi police have booked Araga Jnanendra for his remarks against Kharge.