Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has kicked up a storm again, this time with remarks about the Indian Army that were on Wednesday condemned by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which urged the SP to “sack” him.
Addressing party activists in Rampur on Tuesday, the SP national general secretary referred to “shameful violent happenings” in places such as Kashmir, Tripura, Jharkhand and Bengal.
Khan said excesses by security forces had led to “women in some places chopping off the private parts of Army men”.
The BJP hit out at the SP leader, demanding that his party “sack” him for seeking to “divide the country” on religious lines.
“It has become a fashion in the country to demean the Indian Army in the name of freedom of speech and expression,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said in New Delhi, attacking the SP, Congress and the left for “making statements against the Army”.
While the Army protected the borders, the political parties were bent upon “showing it in a poor light”, he said.