Arrogance and misbehaviour cannot be tolerated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday in a stern message after senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya's MLA son assaulted a government official in Indore with a cricket bat last week.
According to sources, he told the BJP parliamentary party meeting that "Whoever it may be, whoever's son he may be... such arrogance, misbehaviour cannot be tolerated".
"Manmaani nahi chalegi," he said in Hindi, meaning one cannot get away doing whatever he or she wishes.
Though the prime minister did not mention an incident, it was clearly a reference to BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya's attack an anti-encroachment team with a cricket bat last week in Indore. He was subsequently arrested and later released on bail.
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The MLA's father Kailash Vijayvargiya is a BJP national general secretary and was in the meeting when Modi deplored the incident.
The prime minister said such incidents bring the party a bad name and are unacceptable. "If somebody commits a mistake, there should be a sense of apology as well," he said. The MLA had defended his action and refused to apologise.
"PM in BJP parliamentary party meeting today said any kind of misbehaviour that brings down party’s name is unacceptable. He said that action should be taken if someone has done something wrong. He also said that it is applicable on everyone," ANI quoted BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy as saying after the meeting.
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Akash Vijayvargiya, first-time MLA of the BJP, was caught on camera assaulting municipal officer Dhirendra Singh Bais with a cricket bat on June 26 while opposing the demolition of a dilapidated house in Ganji Compound area of the city. He was arrested four days ago and a Bhopal-based court on Saturday granted him bail. He walked out of the jail Sunday morning.
Akash was granted bail by a court on Saturday and was welcomed with garlands and sweets by his supporters. Gunshots were also fired triggering a verbal duel between the Congress and the BJP with the former accusing the latter of "favouring hooliganism", while the saffron party said it was a natural reaction from youngsters.
After coming out of jail, Vijayvargiya dubbed his prison experience as "good" and said he was happy to be out as he would now be focussing on his pending public works.
He said he did not regret the incident but would try to follow Mahatma Gandhi's path of non-violence while raising public issues in future.
(With inputs from PTI)
