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#Modi1: Nine gaffes by BJP ministers that left Modi embarrassed

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Ashok Upadhyay
Ashok UpadhyayMay 28, 2015 | 14:42

#Modi1: Nine gaffes by BJP ministers that left Modi embarrassed

Narendra Modi came to power following an unprecedented mandate on the promise of bringing "achche din" for Indians. His government has completed one year, yet people haven't lost hope. The jinx of policy paralysis, which the country was going through during UPA-2, has been broken. The government has taken several steps to fulfil its development agenda. But it looks like BJP ministers like Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Giriraj Singh have forgotten this agenda and are more interested in expressing their own "Mann Ki Baat". Their utterances haven't only derailed the prime minister's development agenda, but also brought Parliament to a standstill on more than one occasion. They have been a subject of consistent embarrassment to Modi himself. Here is a list of few comments made by the ministers, which put the entire government in an awkward situation.

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Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

In May 2015, at the "Manthan" conclave organised by Aaj Tak, Mukthar Abbas Naqvi said, "This is an issue of faith and belief. Cow is considered holy in India and so we can't allow it to be killed. It is a sensitive issue. Those who cannot live without it should go to Pakistan or to Arab countries. India can never allow it." A day later, finance minister Arun Jaitley disapproved of it and said the government's policies are not affected by such remarks. Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju described the statement as "not palatable". Later on Kiren Rijiju went to the extent of saying, "I eat beef, I'm from Arunachal Pradesh, can somebody stop me? So let us not be touchy about somebody's practices".

Giriraj Singh

In April 2015, Giriraj Singh was having an informal interaction with reporters at the local Circuit House in Hajipur. Here he was heard saying, "Agar Rajiv Gandhi koi Nigerian ladies se byaah kiye hote, gori chamra na hota, toh kya Congress party uska netritwa sweekarti? (Had Rajiv married a Nigerian lady, had she not been fair-skinned, would the Congress have accepted her leadership?)". After the video become public, the Nigerian high commission demanded an apology and the Congress condemned the minister's remarks as "intemperate and distasteful". Singh subsequently expressed "regret" over the statement, but complained that he had made the statement "off the record".

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BJP said that they did not associate themselves with the statement. In the Parliament, the opposition had earlier demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's apology and said the minister must resign. Later on, Giriraj Singh apologized in Parliament.

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti

In December 2014, during the Delhi Assembly elections, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, while addressing a rally in West Delhi's Shyam Nagar area, said, "Aapko tay karna hai ki Dilli mein sarkar Ramzadon ki banegi ya haramzadon ki. Yeh aapka faisla hai (You must decide whether you want a government of those born of Ram or of those born illegitimately)." Her statement not only brought embarrassment to the ruling government, but also wasted six days of the winter session of the Parliament. The first week of the session was washed out following a logjam on the demand to sack the minister, which could have been utilised for discussions on many important pending bills. She apologised in both Houses of Parliament, but the opposition has said that is not enough. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Parliament that he has "criticised in strongest terms" the language used by the minister. He almost pleaded to opposition and said, "She is a new minister, we know her social background, she is from a village, and she has apologised and it is the duty of senior members in the House to also be liberal when a member apologises in front of such a big House."

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Sushma Swaraj

Last December, at the Bhagvad Gita Prerna Utsav to celebrate 5,151 years of Bhagvad Gita, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said that the respect of a "national scripture" was accorded to the Gita when prime minister Modi gifted it to US President Barack Obama during his visit in September 2014. She said, "Bhagwad Gita has answers to everybody's problems" and that's why she is pushing for "Shrimad Bhagwad Gita" to be declared as the national holy book. Criticising Swaraj's remarks, the Trinamool Congress said that the Constitution was the "holy book" in a democracy. Its party chief Mamata Banerjee said, "the Quran, Puranas, Vedas, Vedanta, Bible, Tripitak, Zend-Avesta, Guru Granth Sahib, Gita - we respect all." The Congress too attacked Swaraj, calling her statement "frivolous". Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said, "All holy books are our pride."

General VK Singh

In September 2014, the Armed Forces Tribunal has held that Lt General PK Rath, court martialed in the Sukna land scam case, is not guilty. It was embarrassing because former Army Chief General (Retd) VK Singh - now a minister in the Modi government - had initiated an inquiry, leading to a general court martial and conviction of General Rath. The principal bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal - equivalent to a high court - turned down a plea for appeal against the order. But Gen VK Singh said, "I don't think the court has gone into the validity of the action of General Rath at all... it is more concentrated on an individual which is me, which sounds very awkward." He also said the ministry of defence should appeal against the order. Arun Jaitley snubbed VK Singh and said that the appointment of Lt General Suhag as Army chief was final. Jaitley distanced himself from VK Singh's continuing attack on the Army chief-designate for protecting "criminals".

In April this year, VK Singh said to a news channel that visiting the Pakistan high commission was "more exciting" than evacuating Indians from Yemen. The comment was tagged as insensitive by media outlets and social media. VK Singh seemingly took offence to the outrage in the media, labelling the media "presstitutes" in a tweet. He remained defiant and said he stood by every word he had said and that it is the media which must look within. He said, "A presstitute offers his pen to the highest bidder." "But 90 per cent of the media is clean, which should clean up the rest," he clarified. Arun Jaitley again slammed General VK Singh for his comment. He expressed unhappiness over VK Singh's tweet and stated that the general should have avoided using such words.

Smriti Irani

In August 2014, when asked by a journalist at the India Today Woman Summit 2014 to clear the "mystery" over her educational qualifications, human resources and development minister Smriti Irani, said, "In that kitty of mine where people call me 'anpad' (illiterate), I do have a degree from Yale University as well which I can bring out and show how Yale celebrated my leadership capacity." She then said, "Extraneous circumstances are being created so that I deviate my concentration from what my goals are". That "degree", of course, was no degree but a certificate from the university, given to 11 Indian MPs who went to the Yale campus in Connecticut on June 19 last year to complete a six-day leadership programme with the varsity's renowned faculty. Soon after becoming HRD minister, Irani was at the centre of a raging controversy over her educational qualifications after it emerged that she had made contradictory declarations while contesting the parliamentary elections in 2004 and 2014.

Arun Jaitley

While addressing a conference of state tourism ministers, Arun Jaitley said that due to several reasons, including rapes and the law and order situation, the tourism sector is not booming as much as it should. He said, "As a part of the red carpet glean for the tourists, our law and order - one small incident of rape in Delhi advertised world-over is enough to cost us billions of dollars in terms of lower tourism." The government press release removed the word "small" from the transcribed speech. Later on, Jaitley clarified that there was "no question" of trivialising any incident: "I regret that some word that I used was construed as insensitive, that was not my intention. I am very sensitive to these issues myself."

Najma Heptullah

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat had, on August 17, said India was a "Hindu nation". Najma Heptullah has virtually endorsed this view saying there is nothing wrong with the term Hindu being applied equally to all citizens as a label of "national identity". Drawing a series of analogies from Islam, she said the Arab world referred to India as "al-Hind" and even invoked Prophet Mohammed and said his aunt's daughter was named "Hinda". She said, that the idea that all Indians were Hindus had "evolved in history" and "anything beyond the Hindu Kush mountains and on this side of the Sindh river is Hind. In Persian, they call it Hindustani... where the people of India live (sic)." When this created uproar, Najma Heptullah came out with a clarification. She said that she had been misquoted and "the person who did the interview either did not understand what I was saying or forgot what was said."

Earlier, in May last year, on this very day in office, she said Muslims were not minorities by any stretch of imagination, and instead, Parsis with their dwindling population, qualified for the tag. Heptullah appeared determined to reorient the ministry by playing down its role in the welfare of Muslims and dismissing the policies espoused by the UPA government. She said, "Muslims are not minorities. Parsis are. We have to see how we can help them so that their numbers don't diminish." With this too she invited opposition's ire.

Harsh Vardhan

In June 2014, Harsh Vardhan, the then health minister, was quoted as saying, "any experienced NGO activist knows that condoms sometimes break while being used. That is why government campaigns in India, whether through the National Aids Control Organisation or the state governments, should focus on safe sex as a holistic concept which includes highlighting the role of fidelity to single partners". While informing people about the importance of fidelity as an AIDS prevention measure, he said that it is not only a piece of cultural advice but also a scientific one. The minister later said in a statement that he had no "moral problem" with condoms, as suggested, and said, "Through misleading headlines, an impression is sought to be created that I have misgivings about the efficacy of condoms or that I have a moral problem with condoms."

Harsh Vardhan, in his "vision" for Delhi document has stated that there is a need to integrate value education and emphasis should be laid on exposing students to Indian culture and tradition. He stated that "Yoga" should be made compulsory for students and that there is no requirement for sex education at all.

On December 16 last year, reportedly displeased at controversial statements by some of the ministers and parliamentarians of the ruling BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to have asked them not to cross "Laxman rekha". He has reportedly told BJP lawmakers that controversial statements made by some of them are hurting the party and government's image and that no one must cross the line. But forget about lawmakers, MPs, et al. Are Modi's ministers even listening to him?

By the prime minister's own admission, their statements are definitely hurting the government's image. But if they are listening to the PM, has the time come for him to start acting?

Last updated: January 22, 2016 | 17:52
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