Lucknow, 12 May

(HS): Ajendra Singh Lodhi, a Lok Sabha MP for the Samajwadi Party, has been

charged in Mahoba with assault on a public officer and spreading hatred after

calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi an anti-national, police said on Tuesday.

Lodhi, the Lok Sabha MP for Hamirpur seat, was booked

on Monday night under BNS sections 132 (attack on a public authority), 189(2)

(unlawful assembly), 196(1) (promoting enmity), and 352 (intentional insult). The

police action followed a complaint by BJP district media in-charge Satyendra

Pratap Gupta, who accused Lodhi of inciting caste hate with his statement

against Modi. They made incredibly rude and insulting statements against the

prime minister while speaking with the media. According to police, he said that

Modi is anti-national, which has caused caste hate and damaged our

sensibilities.

On Monday, Lodhi and his aides presented an

11-point letter to the Power Department, highlighting power outages and

problems with smart meters, among other concerns. Gupta said that Lodhi's march

to the government headquarters sparked a roadblock, slowed traffic, and

hampered public servants' job. He further claimed that Lodhi had termed Modi

anti-national. A supposed video of the event, which leaked on social media,

shows the politician criticizing Modi's austerity pitch to the people about

gold and fuel usage. Lodhi allegedly used an expletive to describe Modi as a

desh-virodhi (anti-national) prime minister. He also questioned Modi's

international trips, saying the country has never seen such a prime minister.

The MP, who was speaking to media after delivering

the memorandum to the local administration, warned that the government will

suffer repercussions if their requests were not met. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath blasted the

member for his views. An MP's unparliamentary comment against Prime Minister Narendra

Modi is not only distasteful and unacceptable, but it also represents a

significant assault to democratic civility, according to the Chief Minister. Lodhi's

actions, he argued, indicated poor political culture, ideological bankruptcy,

and disregard for the dignity of public life.

In a post on X, he mentioned, “The unparliamentary

remark made by a Member of Parliament against the world's most popular mass

leader, the Honorable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji, is not only

unseemly and inexcusable, but also a grave assault on the decorum of Indian

democratic traditions. This act reveals political impropriety, ideological bankruptcy,

and utter disregard for the decorum of public life. It is also an insult to the

mandate, trust, and democratic dignity of India represented by its 1.45 billion

citizens. The people of the country will surely respond to such unbecoming

conduct when the time comes.”

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi