Mallikarjun Kharge has been remorseful that a political uproar erupted over his comments at a rally in Kerala that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged were an insult to Gujarati.
Kharge posted on one of the social media sites, X, that his remarks had been purposely misinterpreted, though he admitted that he hurt people and he was sorry. He made it clear that he was never trying to insult Gujaratis and reinstated the point that he respects people of the state a lot.
The dispute started when Kharge addressing an election rally in the Idukki district termed the people in Kerala as educated and clever, telling people in Gujarat and some of the other regions that they may be misled. BJP leaders criticized these remarks that the Congress leadership needed to apologize and clarify to the BJP.
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad publicly opposed the statement made by Kharge by asking whether Congress leaders, such as Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra supported the statement made by Kharge. He encouraged Rahul Gandhi to detach himself of the comments and requested Kharge to make a formal apology.
The event has escalated political tension between the BJP and the Indian National Congress, before the upcoming elections. Although the clarification made by Kharge seeks to de-escalate the situation, the episode has once again served to illustrate how regional and identity-based comments can easily and swiftly develop into significant political scandals.