Union Health Minister J P Nadda said the opposition parties were behaving like 'street people'. He made the remark while answering a journalist's queries at an event hosted by AajTak on Thursday.
Nadda said the opposition protests in New Delhi and other parts of the country, demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over controversial election reforms, were laughable.
The opposition parties, led by the Indian National Congress, and youth organisations spearheaded by the Cockroach Janta Party have been organising mass agitations in the national capital. The Congress has called for a mega rally at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on November 1.
When reminded of the street protests, Nadda said: "Sadak par toh hain hee. Lekin vichar se bhi sadak wale ho gaye hain, (They are already on the streets, but even their thinking has become that of people from the streets).
Nadda, a former national president of the BJP, mocked Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition, for his method of protest. "Rahul Gandhi is doing the kind of things we used to do in college," Nadda said.
In a later remark, Nadda questioned the Congress party's claims of vote theft in multiple states in the alleged absence of verified complaints from state Election Commissions. "It is like running away after throwing stones. We used to do that to principals in college and university," Nadda said.
Recently, the Election Commission of India filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, defending the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, maintaining that the exercise was authorised by law and the relevant orders were approved unanimously by all three members of the poll panel.
An Indian Express report says the SIR exercise led to the deletion of over 13 crore names from the draft rolls across the country.