New Delhi: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Uttar Pradesh has said that all those who do not feel safe in India should be bombed.

“Give me a ministry and I will explode bombs behind those who aren’t loyal to the country… not even one will be left,” Vikram Saini, the BJP MLA from Muzaffarnagar, said on Friday. He said that the language he was using was the same one he always spoke in, and that others in his village spoke in the same manner.

“Such people are traitors. Some arrangements must be made for them. They should be punished. They should leave the country. Why should you stay here if you do not have any patriotic feelings towards your country. If you feel unsafe, go where you feel safe. Who has stopped them?” Saini continued.

The MLA even said that he was willing to personally drop bombs on these people. “Army has several bombs and I will drop them on these traitors.”

#WATCH Vikram Saini, BJP MLA from Muzaffarnagar says ‘My personal view is that those who say they feel unsafe and threatened in India should be bombed, give me a ministry and I will bomb all such people, not even one will be spared’ pic.twitter.com/E9yWNH7MBF — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 4, 2019

Saini has threatened violence against those he disagrees with in the past as well. In 2017, he said he would break the arms and legs of those who disrespected cows. In January 2018, he had said that ‘Hindustan’ belongs to Hindus. “A few incompetent leaders stopped these people with long beards from leaving. These people usurped land and wealth. Had they not been here, all this would have been ours,” he said then.

Also read: Why India Needs More Naseeruddin Shahs

Saini threats against those who feel unsafe in India comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to reject claims by actor Naseeruddin Shah and others that the country is no longer safe for minorities. “Some people” begin talking about insecurity ahead of elections because of an “agenda”, Modi said in an interview.

Shah had said that under the current regime, “There is complete impunity for those who take the law into their own hands. The poison has already spread and it is difficult to put this jinn back into the bottle.” He was attacked online by right-wing groups, and the organisers of the Ajmer Literature Festival cancelled his keynote address following a protest by the BJP’s youth wing.