Bihar court orders FIR against Giriraj Singh over Sonia Gandhi remarks

A Bihar court on Thursday ordered police to file an FIR against Union Minister Giriraj Singh for his controversial remarks on Sonia Gandhi who ignored the racist comment saying she won't respond to people with "narrow mindset".

The Congress also took to streets stepping up its demand for sacking of Singh staging protests in Delhi and also in Bengaluru where BJP leaders have gathered for its National Executive meet.

The BJP on its part sought to bring closure to the raging controversy, saying it considers the matter closed as the minister has expressed his regret. As the outrage against Singh continued after he kicked up a row with his remarks asking whether Congress would have accepted Sonia's leadership had she not been white-skinned, Singh came under attack even from BJP ally and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha.

"It does not behove a union minister to speak in such a language...it's objectionable remark," Kushwaha, President Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), an ally of BJP, told reporters in Patna.

When newsmen sought her reaction, Sonia said she would not like to respond to people with "narrow mindset". "I feel it is not worth responding to persons having such a narrow mindset," Gandhi told reporters in Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh where she had gone to survey the damaged crops and meet farmers.

In Bihar, Sanjay Kumar Singh, a Congress worker, filed a complaint against Singh for his remarks against Sonia in the court of Muzaffarpur Chief Judicial Magistrate Ved Prakash Singh, who transferred the case to the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Anju Singh.

The SDJM directed Mithanpura police station to register a case against the minister on the basis of the complaint, lawyer of the petitioner Sumit Kumar said. The SDJM gave the order to Mithanpura police station under Section 166 of IPC (public servant disobeying law with intent to cause injury to any person).

The complainant, a resident of Miscote colony of Muzaffarpur, said in the petition that after reading a news report about the racist remark on Sonia he was pained. The Youth Congress staged a protest outside a residential complex in Delhi where Singh lives while another demonstration was staged by the Delhi Mahila Congress outside BJP's headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road.

Condemning the remarks of Singh on Sonia, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said the Congress demands not only a public apology from the Minister but also seeks his dismissal from the Cabinet.

In Bengaluru, Congress and NSUI workers assembled at a major junction, about one km away from a hotel where top BJP leaders have gathered for the party's two-day National Executive meeting beginning Friday.
They shouted slogans against Singh and burnt his effigy.

"Giriraj Singh has clarified his position. The matter has ended and should not be made an issue by our opponents. Giriraj Singh has expressed his regret," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters in Bengaluru.