The Congress in Assam on Saturday staged a statewide protest against the “unbecoming conduct” of a state BJP minister, Ashok Singhal, who had compared the principal Opposition party to an animal at a recent public meeting in his constituency, Dhekiajuli.

Besides holding peaceful protests in each district with banners and posters denouncing Singhal and seeking an apology, the Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress president Mira Borthakur Goswami wrote a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him to take cognisance of the “repeated use of derogatory language” against the Opposition and “revered Assamese leaders”.

She also urged Modi “to order a thorough inquiry into alleged scams associated with Shri Singhal and to take suitable action against his unbecoming conduct...”

The Congress protest was announced on Friday evening, hours after Amit Shah flagged the abusive conduct of a “Congress member” at the Voter Adhikar Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar. Sha had also dubbed the Yatra as “Ghuspetiya Bachao Yatra”.

The Congress protest seems to be the party’s way of hitting back at the ruling BJP, which has gone on the offensive against the party and its leader, Rahul since Thursday after the surfacing of a viral video purportedly showing a “Congress member” abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother at a rally in Darbhanga (Bihar).

A person has been arrested in this connection. The Congress, however, has claimed the BJP sends its agents to their meetings to create trouble.

Guwahati city district Congress committee president Swapan Das condemned Singhal’s conduct and sought an apology from him during the peaceful protest outside the Congress’s Manabendra Sarma complex here.

Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia led the protest in a tea garden in his constituency this evening, where an effigy of Singhal was burnt.

“His behaviour is condemnable. Public representatives should know how to behave and exercise caution,” Saikia said.

The Assam PCC said Singhal “crossed all bounds of decency and democratic discourse by making highly derogatory remarks against our great party, shamelessly comparing the Indian National Congress to animals”.

Singhal’s remark was also a “direct affront to the millions of freedom fighters, leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and countless unsung heroes who sacrificed their lives to liberate India”, the PCC said.