Cong leader Sheikh Hussain booked for offensive comments against PM Modi, says he said “nothing regrettable”

New Delhi: Maharashtra Congress leader Sheikh Hussain who has been charged in a police FIR filed in Nagpur for his alleged offensive comments against the Prime Minister on Wednesday said that he does not regret his statement and that his party will fight against any action taken against him.

Speaking to ANI, Hussain said, “I have not said anything that an FIR should have been registered. I delivered the speech based on the party line. The last sentence that I said, I used an idiom. There are so many things that are said as idioms, I just said that.” He also said there was nothing “regrettable” about his remark.

“I have said nothing regrettable. Our leaders are being served ED notices everyday. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have been summoned. Aren’t there people in the BJP? And the people who switch from BJP to Congress are given ED notices, while the opposite is happening when someone switches from Congress to BJP,” he said.

“If there will be action, we will see how our party fights against it. The party will fight. I did not speak anything derogatory. I did not make any personal remark,” the Congress leader said.

Nagpur Police has registered an FIR against Hussain for his alleged objectionable remarks targeting PM Narendra Modi during a protest on June 13.

To express their solidarity with Rahul Gandhi against the Enforcement Directorate questioning of him in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper, Congress leaders and workers staged a demonstration outside the ED office in Nagpur on Monday. During his speech at the protest, Hussain allegedly used a derogatory remark against PM Modi at the end of his speech.

Hussain said that has not been served any notice by the party till now and nobody in the party has called him out on the “derogatory remarks”.

“Why would the ministers sitting on the stage stop me when I have not said anything derogatory? They have not pointed it out to me till now. I urge the BJP not to disturb the atmosphere of Nagpur. I have not been served any notice till now by the police,” he said.

“People are trying to disturb the peace of the city by presenting my statement in a wrong way,” Hussain said.

A case was registered on Tuesday at the Gittikhadan Police Station in Nagpur under Sections 294 (obscene acts and songs) and 504 of the IPC (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).