Bastar BJP man offers reward for slapping Kamal Nath over Vande Mataram row

RAIPUR: An FIR has been lodged with police in tribal Bastar region- Dantewada of Chhattisgarh against a BJP worker, who offered Rs 1 lakh to anyone who publicly slapped “Kamal Nath”. Congress workers, who lodged the complaint, alleged that the BJP worker took to social media against MP chief minister Kamal Nath after being aggrieved by reports that Vande Mataram has been banned in Congress ruled state.A BJP worker called Harish Sharma from Bacheli, Danetwada uploaded the controversial post on Facebook opposing Kamlanath’s decision to ban the national song. Talking to TOI, Harish Sharma said, “ I expressed my sentiments against Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath for " disrespecting" the national song, which is a mark of respect of the sacrifice of the freedom fighters. There should be protest against the Chief Minister for hurting nation’s sentiments. However when the Chief Minister Kamal Nath rolled back his decision and I deleted the post.”My real intention was to reach out to Kamal Nath and express my sentiments for disregarding national song’s respect, Sharma added. Later, he deleted his previous post saying that " Better sense has now prevailed on Kamal Nnath. Now, I am cancelling the offer for reward". Taking hard stand against the BJP worker's post and inappropriate language, the congress workers lodged complaint in seven police stations of the Dantewada and FIR in Bacheli’s police station.Congress district president Vimal Surana described it as a direct threat to the chief minister describing that such statements are provocative. Congress worker Bhaskar Rathore said that they had filed complaint against Harish Sharma for uploading unsavoury remarks against the Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Recently, the Madhya Pradesh government had ruled that it was no longer compulsory to sing the national song but on Thursday the congress government announced that Vande Mataram will be sung on the first working day of every month in the secretariat.