February 25, 2026

Raja Pateria: Dangerous & Despicable Choice Of Words

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-12-14 06:15:02

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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The controversy over Congress leader Raja Pateria’s call to ‘kill’ Prime Minister Modi in a speech (which vent viral) to party workers in Panna in Madhya Pradesh took a serious turn after Pateria was arrested by the state police from his home in Damoh distirct. Earlier, the Congress party also took a stern decision (it had earlier criticized him and distanced itself from his remarks) and issued a show cause notice to Pateria to explain why he should not be expelled from the party.

Pateria has said that his words were ‘misinterpreted’. There is actually nothing to misinterpret in the word ‘hatya’. It means murder or killing. Pateria said that to save the Constitution, “Modi ki hatya karne ke liye tatpar rehna hoga” (we should be ready to kill Modi). That he is reported to have later said that by ‘hatya’ he meant electoral killing is of no use. His choice of word was demonic and is not acceptable.

The political polarization and the abysmal depth political discourse has reached in India is the reason why politicians do not have any control over their tongues. It is indeed dangerous if people start using words like ‘hatya’ (in whatever context or meaning) against their political opponents. It is also a manifestation of the inner frustrations that when someone is not able to deal with his or her opponent politically, he or she thinks of killing them. This will spell disaster for Indian democracy.

The law should be applied strongly against Pateria. Congress should expel him. An example must be set in his case so that others are deterred in future.