'5 daughters to beget a son': Congress leader’s tweet comparing daughters to problems sparks row

After the BJP’s attack and social media outrage over his tweet, Patwari clarified that daughters were divine for him.

Jitu Patwari

Former Madhya Pradesh minister and Congress leader Jitu Patwari on Wednesday landed in a spot as his tweet aimed at the BJP said that the ruling party had given birth to five “daughters” — noteban, GST, inflation, unemployment and recession — in its bid to beget a “son” called development.

The BJP was quick to slam Mr. Patwari, calling his tweet as “highly misogynistic”, which projected daughters as “unwanted”.

After a controversy, Mr. Patwari, however, deleted the tweet late on Wednesday night and expressed regret.

In his alleged controversial tweet, Mr. Patwari on Wednesday took a swipe at the ruling BJP saying that “vikas” (development) was yet to take birth.

The BJP and several other social media users took strong exception to Patwari’s Twitter post.

In a tweet addressed to the chairperson of National Commission for Women (NCW) Rekha Sharma, BJP’s national spokesman Sambit Patra tagged Patwari’s post and said, “Please take note of this highly misogynistic tweet of an elected representative which projects daughters as unwanted & in most regressive manner. This should not go unpunished!”

In her reply, Ms. Sharma assured action on Mr. Patwari’s tweet.“Sad that these people with this kind of mind set are calling themselves leaders. What are they teaching to their followers I wonder. Will ask for an explanation from him for sure,” Ms. Sharma said in a tweet.

However, after the BJP’s attack and social media outrage over his tweet, Mr. Patwari clarified that daughters were divine for him.

“As far as daughters are concerned, they are like Goddess. With the expectation of development, I have made a tweet which BJP is using to hide its weaknesses. I am still saying that the entire country is waiting for development,” he said.

In another tweet, Mr. Patwari said, “Modi ji broke the back of the country’s economy by demonetisation, GST, inflation, unemployment and recession. The public endured all this only in the hope of development. I regret if my tweet, with above mentioned intentions, hurt the sentiments of anybody.”

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also reacted strongly to Mr. Patwari’s tweet and criticised it. “On the one hand the entire nation is remembering the sacrifice of Rani Durgavati, on the other hand the Congress is humiliating the daughters. Has this distorted mindset of the Congress taken the sacrifice of many daughters like Naina Sahni, Sarla Mishra, Priti Mishra? Damn on this nastiest ideology of Congress,” Mr. Chouhan tweeted.