Mumbai: The Congress on Friday took offence to BJP General Secretary, Pramod Mahajan?s, comment on Bihar after a fight broke out between groups of Marathi and north Indian medical students at Mumbai's JJ hospital last week.
Mahajan said that 'goonda' elements from Bihar should not indulge in 'dadagiri' in Maharashtra. He had made the remark while commenting on a clash between doctors at JJ hospital. The fight was caused when students who are from Maharashtra objected to North Indians working as doctors in the state.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lashed out at Mahajan's anti-Bihari stance saying it was completely baseless. "People of other states should be grateful to Biharis for supplying human resource needs. Biharis migrate to earn their living and not to disturbing others."
Samajwadi Party General Secretary, Amar Singh, agreed and said Mahajan was unnecessarily encouraging regionalism.
"Since the support base for communal politics is on the decline, they are now taking up issues of regionalism and communalism," he said.
The Congress has asked Pramod Mahajan to apologise for his remarks saying such comments weaken national unity. Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said that it was wrong of Pramod Mhajan to associate criminal activities with particular states.
Shiv Sena has taken up the issue and claimed that they will always fight for the Marathi manoos - the sons of the Marathi soil.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam lashed out against the Shiv Sena and its leader Raj Thackeray saying, "It was a fight between two students. The fact that one was from Bihar, the other from Maharashtra was just incidental."
"It wasn't Bihar versus Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena is politicising the issue because the party is in crisis and Pramod Mahajan's comment was completely unwarranted," he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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