The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday alleged that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is trying to protect the dangerous mentality of people like Imran Masood, who was arrested for his hate speech in which he allegedly threatened to "chop" BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi "into pieces".
"We have seen the kind of language used by our political opponents. Their political secularism has changed into Taliban secularism. People are going to reject this as they want to go on the path of good governance and development," said BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
"We have complained to Election Commission to take action against the party who is making one statement after other. Congress is trying to disrupt the peaceful situation in the country during elections," he added.
Naqvi also said that there is a revolution against bad governance and a battle for good governance in this country today.
"It is very evident and is happening all over the country. Country's fate and face is going to transform in this elections," he added.
Masood, 40, was arrested on the basis of a video clipping that went viral on the web. The clipping showed threatening to "chop Narendra Modi to pieces", igniting a new political controversy prior to next month's general election.
He is now facing criminal charges for his hate speech, though he maintains that he never threatened to kill Modi, but only to teach him a lesson.
A First Information Report (FIR) accuses him of violating the Model Code of Conduct, but it is not clear when and where the comments were made. Local police said they received the video CD on Thursday.
Masood claims he spoke those words eight months ago, when he was with the Samajwadi Party.
