Comment on Hema’s cheeks sparks row
■ BJP slams MP law minister, tells him to focus on road work
A minister in the Kamal Nath government Wednesday sparked a row when he quoted the famous line delivered in the 1990s by former Bihar chief minister while promising to build roads in Madhya Pradesh as smooth as the cheeks of Bollywood’s “dream girl” Hema Malini.
State law minister P.C. Sharma, while trying to blunt the criticism regarding lack of maintenance of roads in MP leading to potholes, took a vow before reporters here that his government would build roads as smooth as the “cheeks of Hema Malini”. He, however, blamed the former Shivraj Singh Chouhan government for construction of poor quality roads that gave way to potholes. He was surveying the condition of roads in some posh areas of the capital city of Bhopal along with state PWD minister Sajjan Singh Verma.
“The roads in Bhopal appear like the cheeks of Kailash Vijayvargiya (BJP national general secretary). We will give them the look of the cheeks of Hema Malini,” he quipped. His remarks have triggered a row with the Opposition BJP taking strong exception to them.
“This (Mr Sharma’s remark) is highly objectionable. Road conditions were excellent when the Congress came to power in MP in December 2018. But the Kamal Nath government has failed to either build an inch of new road or maintain the old ones, causing extensive damage to roads in the state.”
“I appeal to Mr Sharma to focus on building roads instead of talking of film actresses,” BJP spokesman here, Rajneesh Agrawal, said.
Incidentally, former chief minister and BJP national vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan had once taken pride in the roads he built in the state by comparing them with those in the United States.
The roads in Bhopal appear like the cheeks of Kailash Vijayvargiya. We will give them the look of the cheeks of Hema Malini. — P.C. Sharma, MP law minister