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Congress slams Irani on Durga remarks, says she should be charged

by IBNS 26 Feb 2016, 08:29 am

New Delhi, Feb 26 (IBNS) While Union Minister Smriti Irani defended her remarks on Goddess Durga, Congress went ballistic against her and said her words should be expunged and she might be arrested and charged for being blasphemous.

Congressman Anand Sharma said, "Anything inflammatory about any God, Prophet, spoken by any member, especially the minister, will not be taken. We want the minister to be arrested and charged. Anything blasphemous should not be said in this house."

On Thursday, The HRD Minister had read out a pamphlet circulated in the JNU as a proof. The pamphlet is said to project the Hindu Goddess in a derogatory manner.

Refusing to apologise, Irani said on Friday that she herself is a Durga worshiper and a practicing Hindu and was merely reading out the words published in the piece of paper.

The debate started on Thursday after Left minister Sitaram Yechury termed the arrest of JNU students as unfortunate.

Earlier, speaking on the same issue, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the BJP is not against anyone and does not seek to curb freedom but is against anything anti-national.

Jaitley said, "Hate speech is not freedom of expression."