A video of Aam Aadmi Party’s Gujarat state unit president Gopal Italia making derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone viral on social media. In the video, Gopal Italia can be seen abusing PM Modi and calling him names. The date of the video is not confirmed, but it is apparently from 2019 during the run-up to the general elections.
In this video, Gopal Italia said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a ‘neech’ person. I can’t confirm but I want to ask you, is there any former Prime Minister of the country who has done so many gimmicks while going to cast vote? This ‘neech’ type of person is doing road shows here. And he is showing how I am making this country C. You better understand the meaning of C. He talks about digital India and rushes to Gujarat from Delhi to cast vote. This is how he is making country C. So, this ‘neech’ type of person is giving a message to the country about how he is making this country C.”
Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya criticised AAP leader Gopal Italia for this video. He tweeted, “Gopal Italia, Kejriwal’s right-hand man, and AAP Gujarat’s President, stoops to Kejriwal’s level, calls Prime Minister Modi ‘neech’. Using such profanities and abusing Gujarat’s pride and son of the soil is an insult to every Gujarati, who has voted for him and the BJP for 27 years.”
Notably, it is not the first time that an opposition leader has used ‘Neech’ for PM Narendra Modi. Back in 2017, veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had called PM Modi a neech aadmi, a comment he repeated ahead of 2019 elections. At that time, people of India gave a resounding reply to Aiyar by giving a historic verdict for PM Modi. It remains to be seen how people of Gujarat react to this ‘neech’ comment by Gopal Italia against Narendra Modi.
This is just the latest instance of an AAP leader bringing embarrassment to the party. Earlier in the day, Rajendra Pal Gautam, minister in Delhi’s AAP government had to submit his resignation after attending an event where Hindu Gods were abused.