BHOPAL: A political row has erupted in Madhya Pradesh following controversial statements made by a BJP leader, belonging to the OBC Lodhi caste, against the Brahmins. The issue surfaced when Pritam Singh Lodhi, while addressing a students’ function to mark the birth anniversary of warrior queen Avantibai Lodhi, slammed people belonging to the Brahmin caste, saying,
“The Brahmins were fooling people in the name of offering religious rituals and prayers, and grabbing money and other things from commoners. They (Brahmins) are prospering on our money and resources. Seeing beautiful women from good families, they (Brahmins) want to have food at these women’s homes. They want young women seated in the front row and make elderly women sit at the back.” The event took place at Kharaih village in Rannod area of Shivpuri district on Wednesday.
A video in which Lodhi can be seen making these remarks went viral on Thursday, after which Praveen Mishra, a Brahmin leader of BJP’s youth wing, lodged an FIR against Lodhi at Rannod. The BJP promptly went into damage control mode and called Lodhi to Bhopal for an explanation, sources said. The Congress was quick to target the ruling party and the Shivraj Singh government.
“The BJP leader’s public statement about the Brahmins is part of his party’s well-planned conspiracy against the Brahmins and other general category people. In November 2021, the ruling party’s national general secretary in-charge for Madhya Pradesh, P Murlidhar Rao, had said in Bhopal that Brahmins and Baniyas were in his pockets. What Lodhi has stated on Wednesday is the extension of Rao’s earlier statements,” state Congress’s media wing head, KK Mishra, said.
A Brahmin leader of the Congress, Mishra questioned why the Brahmin leaders of BJP, such as VD Sharma, Gopal Bhargava and Narottam Mishra, were silent over Lodhi’s statements. “The entire Brahmin caste should unite against BJP, else days aren’t far when we will be assaulted by these people,” Mishra said while demanding a apology from the party.
Lodhi had contested the last two assembly polls against Congress veteran KP Singh ‘Kakkaju’, from Pichhore. In the 2018 polls, he lost by a narrow margin of about 2,500 votes. He is already accused in at least 37 criminal cases, including four attempt-to-murder and two murder cases. Though the general category voters constitute only 10-12 per cent of the voters in MP, they hold a sway in several districts and regions.
FIR lodged against Lodhi
A video in which Lodhi can be seen making these remarks went viral on Thursday, after which Praveen Mishra, a Brahmin leader of BJP’s youth wing, lodged an FIR against Lodhi at Rannod. The BJP promptly called Lodhi to Bhopal for an explanation