The disparaging remarks by senior State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and Ministers in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet over Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s political debut led to controversy on Friday with leaders across party lines condemning them.
Reacting to Ms. Gandhi Vadra being appointed Congress general secretary Senior State BJP leader and Minister of the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) Vinod Narayan Jha had told a private news channel: “Except for being beautiful, I see no other quality that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be credited with. Nature has showered its bounty on her but the Congress should remember that beauty does not garner votes. She may be of 37-38 or even 44 years old but she is a political novice.”
Earlier, on Thursday, senior State BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, too, had made similar disparaging remarks on Ms. Gandhi Vadra’s official entry into politics. He tweeted: “If the Congress wants to exult over the induction of a woman with a tainted life partner, congratulations to them…Priyanka’s businessman husband’s irregular land transactions are spread over two states and he is facing probes.”
Referring to Ms. Gandhi-Vadra’s face resembling that of her grandmother, late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Mr. Sushil Modi further tweeted, “If a person could become as capable as someone else merely by resembling him or her, by now we would have many more Amitabh Bachchans and Virat Kohlis. Duplicates do not work in politics. Priyanka might resemble Indira but there is a big difference.”
Leaders across party lines demanded the removal of Vinod Narayan Jha from the Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet and his expulsion from the BJP. “Mr Jha has displayed a perverse attitude towards women and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should immediately remove him from the Cabinet. We also expect the BJP would expel him from the party,” said State Congress leaders Prem Chandra Mishra and Kaukab Quadri.
Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Tejashwi Yadav criticised the CM: “Nitish Kumar is running an institute where he trains to abuse and makes excuses…his Cabinet Ministers and spokespersons are trained there.”
However, ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader and former State Congress president Ashok Choudhury said, “We cannot approve of such remarks...Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has her own aura which may or may not bring desired results in the elections…but the way she has been spoken about does not appear proper.” Senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, too, said that CM Nitish Kumar, “should immediately sack this Minister [Jha].”
