Fingers raised at Narendra Modi will be chopped off, says Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Bihar unit chief Nityanand Rai stoked a controversy on Monday, when he asked party supporters to chop off the fingers and hands of people who voice criticism against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. [caption id=“attachment_4220123” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nityanand Rai. Courtesy: Twitter/@nityanandraibjp[/caption] As per a report in  The Times of India, Rai said Modi had done a lot for the development of the country, including demonetisation and GST. “If anyone raises eyebrows at Narendra Modi, break his hands and, if need be, even chop them,” he was quoted as saying. Rai, an MP from Ujiarpur, was addressing a meeting organised by the Vanshi Chacha Samajik Vikas Parishad in Patna. Key leaders from Bihar, including deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, Mangal Pandey and Suresh Sharma were also present at the meeting. However, he later defended his statement, saying he didn’t mean break hands literally, but as a metaphor, as per a report in The Indian Express. “I used the expression of breaking fingers and chopping hands as proverbs to convey that we would strongly deal with those who rise against the country’s pride and security,” he was quoted as saying. But this isn’t the first time Rai has been in hot water over his controversial remarks. Earlier this month, he had called Modi a “reincarnation of Swami Vivekananda”. In August this year, Rai had said that the “sound of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ should replace azaan from mosques and church bells”. However, he later made a U-turn and asserted he did not say so. “I said that sound of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Matram’ should come from mosques and churches, but didn’t mean in place of azaan and bell,” he said. He later called Tejashwi Yadav the last successor of the “Jungle Raj in Bihar”. With inputs from IANS