Kailash Vijayvargiya calls incident involving son Akash 'unfortunate', says there was 'mishandling from both the sides'

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Monday broke his silence on the arrest of his son and BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya who was taken into custody for thrashing a municipal officer and later granted bail. Kailash said that the incident was “very unfortunate” and that there was “mishandling from both the sides”. “Kachhe khiladi hain — Akash ji bhi aur nagar nigam commissioner. It wasn’t a big issue but it was made huge,” the national general secretary of the BJP said.

Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP on his son & BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya: I think officers should not be arrogant, they should talk to people's representatives. I saw a lack of it and to ensure that it doesn't happen again, both of them should be made to understand. https://t.co/BhTbirUNIj

— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2019

Throwing light on the issue, Kailash said that he was once a “ councillor, mayor and a minister of the department”, and thus know that no residential building is demolished during rains. “I don’t know if an order for the same was issued by the government, if it wasn’t, it’s a fault on their part,” he said. “If a building is being demolished anyway, then arrangements are made for the residents to live in a ‘dharamshala’. There was mishandling from Nagar Nigam. Women staff and women police officers should have been there. It was immature. This should not happen again,” Kailash said.

After being granted bail on Saturday , Akash was released from Indore district jail on Sunday. On his release, he was welcomed with flower garlands by his supporters and relatives. Speaking to ANI, the BJP legislator said he was not embarrassed or guilty of what he did as he could not think of anything else when women were being mistreated. “I am not guilty or embarrassed about what I did as it was in public interest. A woman was being dragged brutally in front of the police and I couldn’t think of doing anything else,” he said, adding that he hopes he would not have to pick up the cricket bat again.

“We work for public interest and dedicate each and every moment of our lives for the peace and prosperity of people of this country. We will continue doing that. I pray to god ki vo dobara ballebazi karne ka avsar na de (I Pray to God that he does not give me another opportunity to pick up the bat)” he added.

Earlier, Akash had said that he will not tolerate hooliganism and corruption at any cost. “I warned them to leave in ten minutes, or they will be responsible for the consequences. But they did not listen to me. This is just the beginning,” he said, adding, “’Aavedan, nivedan aur fir dana dan’ is our line of action.”

Meanwhile, soon after the incident, in Akash’s home turf of Indore, posters saluting him cropped up in multiple localities on Thursday night. In fact, there was a lot of support for Akash on social media as well. On Facebook, the video of him thrashing the IMC officer has garnered praiseworthy comments aplenty such as “best batting performance,” “timely and essential knock,” “a captain’s innings”.

However, according to BJP sources in New Delhi , the party’s central leadership was unhappy and also disappointed with Vijayvargiya senior’s handling of the incident, who is in charge of the party’s affair in the state of West Bengal.