The demand for a separate nation comprising the southern States of India by Congress Lok Sabha member DK Suresh created a hornet’s nest on Friday, with the ruling party BJP and the Opposition Congress engaged in a war of words both inside and outside Parliament. This also led to protests by BJP members who alleged that the grand old party has a tradition of dividing the nation, which still persists.

The BJP said Congress leader DK Suresh has no right to remain an MP even for a minute, as it accused him of openly talking about breaking India, violating his oath to protect the country’s unity and sovereignty.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi demanded an apology from Congress Parliamentary Chairperson Sonia Gandhi over Suresh’s demand for a separate nation comprising southern States, alleging bias in budgetary allocations.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in his capacity as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, condemned the statement made by his party colleague, although he mentioned that the MP has already clarified.

“We will not tolerate any statement that calls for breaking the country. That statement may be from any party, be it from my party or their (BJP) party, or somebody else. Whether someone says it or not, I, Mallikarjun Kharge, will say that India is one from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and will remain one. It is for this cause that Indira Gandhi gave the supreme sacrifice of her life, and Rajiv Gandhi gave his life. Can such a party talk of breaking the country? We will not tolerate such a thing.” It is not correct to repeat in the House what Suresh has not said, he added.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in Parliament, Joshi said that Congress member Suresh had demanded a separate nation comprising southern States. He said that the remarks were an insult to the Constitution and its architect, Babasaheb Ambedkar.

“I condemn the statement of the Congress member and demand that the matter be referred to the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha,” Joshi asserted.

Members of the Opposition INDIA bloc, including the Congress and the DMK, were on their feet trying to make some point as Joshi made the statement in the House. They later walked out for a brief while. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla called the Opposition members to make their point after the laying of parliamentary papers on the table of the House.

“I think they have boycotted the proceedings,” the Speaker remarked, referring to the empty Opposition benches.

As the Speaker moved to the next item on the agenda, the opposition members returned to the House.

“I had signaled to you that you would be allowed to speak after laying the papers. Now, you can make your point in the debate on the President’s address,” Birla said. Joshi added that the Congress leadership should clarify whether it subscribes to the views of Suresh, the brother of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.

“The Congress traditions of dividing the country still persist. I demand that Sonia Gandhi take action against the member and also clarify whether the party supports the views of the Congress member,” the parliamentary affairs minister said. Joshi added that he also hails from a southern state, as does his colleague External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and “neither of us feels in the manner as the Congress member has claimed.”

Congress member Suresh, who represents Bangalore Rural in the Lok Sabha, had claimed that injustice was meted out to the southern states in the allocation of a share in tax collection, while the tax money is distributed to North India.

Our tax money is being distributed to North India; if we don’t condemn it, there might arise a situation where we will have to demand a separate nation,” Suresh said on Thursday while commenting on the interim budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, at a press conference, criticised Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, along with their India bloc allies, for maintaining a “conspicuous silence” over his “shameful” and “unconstitutional” comments. Prasad emphasised that before contesting an election and after winning it, anyone takes an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the country’s unity and sovereignty.

“He has committed a gross impropriety as an MP by openly talking of the breakup of India. It is a clear violation of the constitution’s main point of unity and integrity,” he said.

In a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, who had led his party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ earlier and is now spearheading the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, the BJP leader said that he is supposedly working to unite the country but has now disowned the comments of his party’s MP.

Rejecting the Congress MP’s charge of discrimination, he mentioned that Modi had recently inaugurated a Boeing facility in Karnataka, and the state has been given a tax share of over Rs 1.35 lakh crore during 2014-19, against Rs 53,996 crore during 2009-14 when the Congress-led UPA was in power.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal also sought an apology from the Congress for the controversial statement by the party MP.

Kharge said Suresh is not a member of the Rajya Sabha, and therefore, his conduct cannot be debated in the House.

However, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said that his earlier rulings had made it clear that the statement by a Lok Sabha MP can be discussed in the Upper House.

“Congress leaders have made sacrifices for the country,” he said, adding that the MP in question has clarified on TV that he did not state what is being reported. If he has said anything, the matter should be looked into by the privileges committee (of Lok Sabha),” Kharge said.

Goyal had read out the English translation of the statement Suresh made in Kannada on Thursday.

The MP from the Bengaluru Rural constituency had purportedly stated that southern states are not receiving their dues as taxes collected from them are being distributed in the north. He purportedly said that the southern states would be forced to demand a separate nation if the injustice was not rectified.

Calling himself a ‘proud Indian’, Congress MP DK Suresh issued a clarification for his “separate country for South India” remark, saying the intention behind his statement was to bring to notice the “injustice in funds distribution” by the BJP-led central government.

A BJP leader from Dakshina Kannada lodged a complaint against Suresh at JMFC Court in Mangaluru and Mangaluru North police demanding action against the Congress MP under section 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).