Loose- mouth Giriraj in Sonia shocker
BJP president Amit Shah gives minister warning not to embarrass party, Modi govt
The BJP and the Narendra Modi government was once again pushed into a corner with controversial minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises Giriraj Singh making a racist comment on Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Though red- faced and trying desperately to distance itself from the remark, the party leadership does not appear to be in any mood to take action against the minister, who has turned into a “serial offender”. BJP president Amit Shah, however, summoned him to warn that he should “exercise restraint and not embarrass the party”.
Besides Mr Singh, only on Tuesday Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar had told protesting nurses in the state not to hold a “hungerstrike in the sun ... because it will make them dark and ruin their marital prospects”.
Mr Singh was shown on TV channels asking whether the Congress would have accepted a Nigerian woman ( as its president) had Rajiv Gandhi married one. “If Rajiv had married a Nigerian woman, would the Congress have accepted her? If Sonia had not been white, would the party have accepted her?” he asked. His comments not merely set off a huge row, with not just the Congress but several other parties as well as social activists on the warpath, but the Nigerian high commission also stepped in to object to such a racist attack.
Nigeria’s acting high commissioner O. B. Okongor told reporters that a complaint might be filed with the external affairs ministry as Mr Singh’s comments were in “very bad taste”. He wanted the minister to “withdraw the comments and apologise to the Nigerian people”, and said the high commission “will notify the Nigerian government about the issue”.
The minister, however, refused to apologise for his remarks and merely expressed regret. “If Soniaji and Rahulji have been hurt by my remarks, I express my regret,” he said. His defence was that he had made these remarks in an “off the record” conversation and he felt that the media was blowing it out of all proportion.
With the Bihar elections approaching, the party is not likely to take any strong action against the minister, who is an MP from Nawada Lok Sabha constituency in the state. There seems to be a strong sense in the BJP that any action against Mr Singh could upset the upper caste votebank in Bihar.
That the party appeared to be going soft on Mr Singh became clear with Bihar leader and party spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said he couldn’t
November 2014: He ( Nitish Kumar) is behaving like a dehati aurat ( rural woman) and quarrelling with Narendra Modi out of jealousy
September 2014: Yoginath- ji ( Yogi Adityanath) alone can’t be responsible for Uttar Pradesh ( bypolls) debacle. Many go down in other states by changing stance and allegedly chanting ‘ secular, secular’. We are bleeding to get secular tag, our job to make people aware of social threat and ‘ love jihad’ is one of them, winning or losing is secondary
May 2014: Isn’t it true that all people caught in terrorist activities belong to one community? I am not trying to blame any one particular community. Why are all socalled secular parties silent on this?
April 2014: Those opposing Narendra Modi are looking at Pakistan, and such people will have a place in Pakistan