Chhattisgarh’s Forest and Climate Change Minister Kedar Kashyap has been accused of assaulting a government guest house staffer in Bastar’s Jagdalpur, sparking a political row in the state.
According to the staffer — 36-year-old Khitendra Pandey — he had been making some snacks when he was called to the minister. Pandey has now filed a police complaint.
“When I went there, the minister began abusing me and demanding to know why the guest rooms weren’t unlocked. I told him they were. But he got upset and removed his footwear, hit me with his hands, grabbed my shirt and slapped me a couple of times,” he claimed.
The police have confirmed that they had received a complaint and that an inquiry is ongoing.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel posted a video of the staffer’s allegations on X and demanded Kashyap’s resignation. He tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the post.
“Is only Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji’s mother a mother, or are all mothers mothers too?” he asked, invoking the recent row over allegedly derogatory remarks against the prime minister’s mother. “The Bharatiya Janata Party has to answer this question. Kedar Kashyap is a senior minister from Chhattisgarh. In Jagdalpur, he abused an employee, grabbed him by the collar and assaulted him. At the very least, the BJP should demand the minister’s resignation. They should also aplogise publicly. It would be good if they apologise while crying, but if the tears have dried up, they can do it without,” he posted.
On his part, Kashyap has issued an official statement denying the allegations and calling it “propaganda”. It said: “Insulting our God-like workers is intolerable for me under any circumstances. The Congress is issueless. The only work left for Congress is to spread misleading propaganda. The incident being talked about has not happened at all”.
The BJP has yet to make a statement.
