BJP's Anil Bonde Booked Over Rahul Gandhi's 'Tongue Should Be Singed' Comment

Anil Bonde, however, remained defiant and demanded that a First Information Report (FIR) should be registered against Gandhi himself over his comments on the reservation issue at a US university.

A case was registered against BJP MP Anil Bonde here on Wednesday over his controversial remark that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's "tongue should be singed," police said.

The Rajya Sabha member, however, remained defiant and demanded that a First Information Report (FIR) should be registered against Gandhi himself over his comments on the reservation issue at a US university.

Bonde had on Tuesday kicked up a row, saying Gandhi's tongue should be singed as his statement on reservations was "dangerous" and hurt the feelings of the 'bahujan' (non-Brahmin) communities.

Reacting to the FIR, the BJP MP said in Nagpur later that a case should be registered against the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha instead, because he created apprehension in the minds of 70 percent of people of India that their reservation could be taken away.

"He expressed this desire in a foreign country. Hence, in fact, an offence should be registered against Rahul Gandhi," he told reporters.

BJP workers from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes would go the police station and make this demand, Bonde added.

Earlier in the day, Congress leaders including Amravati MP Balwant Wankhede, MLA Yashomati Thakur, former minister Sunil Deshmukh and others staged a sit-in at the office of Amravati city police commissioner, seeking action against Bonde.

Subsequently, an FIR was registered against him at Rajapeth police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 192 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riots), 351 (ii) (intentionally causing another person to apprehend the use of criminal force) and 356 (defamation).

Earlier, Shiv Sena MLA from Buldhana Sanjay Gaikwad had announced a reward for anyone cutting off Rahul Gandhi's tongue over the reservation comments. "The language of chopping off the tongue is not proper, but what Rahul ji said against reservation is dangerous," Bonde had said on Tuesday.

"Hence, if anyone speaks anything absurd in a foreign country, then rather than chopping off his tongue, it should be singed. It is certainly necessary to singe the tongues of such people -- be it Rahul Gandhi, Dnyanesh Maharao or Shyam Manav and people who hurt the feelings of the 'bahujans'," the BJP MP had added.

Maharao, a veteran journalist, was recently accused of hurting religious sentiments, while Manav is an anti-superstition crusader. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)