Bihar Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vinod Kumar Singh asked journalists to chant Bharat Mata ki Jai at a party function here on Tuesday but later expressed regret over his utterances.
“You members of different media houses should also understand that before being journalists you are sons and daughters of Bharat Mata and you should have no qualms in chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai ”, said Mines and Geology minister Vinod Kumar Singh, while addressing an event to felicitate party Ministers. Some media persons, though, obliged him but others refused to do so. Mr. Singh has been three-time BJP MLA from the Pranpur Assembly constituency of Katihar district but has become Minister for the first time.
Mr. Singh urged everyone to chant Bharat Mata ki Jai saying it would help the country stay strong. However, with little response from the crowd, he asked, “those who did not raise their hands… were not chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai , would they chant PakistanMata ki Jai ?...Are they sons and daughters of Pakistan?.”
All the senior State BJP leaders and Ministers, including State party chief Nitya Nand Rai and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, were present.
However, when the media cell of the BJP took notice of Mr. Singh’s utterances grabbing news space, it brought it to Mr. Rai’s attention who in turn reprimanded Mr. Singh. At the conclusion of the event, Mr. Singh took the mike again and said, “I consider media persons as my brothers…If I’ve uttered anything hurting the sentiments of anyone I express my regret.”
Taking umbrage over the Minister’s utterances, the opposition RJD said: “Ever since Nitish Kumar joined hands with the BJP we knew such coercive things would be in the offing.”
“First, three people in Bhojpur district were thrashed on suspicion of transporting beef in a truck and now this coercive thing to chant Bharat Mata ki Jai …gradually the BJP-RSS are showing their true colours,” said RJD leader and party MLA Shakti Yadav. However, leaders of the BJP’s alliance partner JD(U) said the remarks might have been inadvertent.
Earlier senior State BJP leader Giriraj Singh, now Minister in PM Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, had said that Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav “wanted to make Bihar a Pakistan.” During the last Assembly poll campaign in 2015, BJP chief Amit Shah too had said that if the BJP lost the poll “crackers would be burst in Pakistan.”
