Sonipat/New Delhi: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar ridiculed Sonia Gandhi’s return as the Congress chief, using a Hindi proverb to seemingly call her a ‘dead mouse’. It provoked the opposition party to demand an apology.
Addressing a poll rally Sunday at Kharkhoda near Sonipat, The Haryana Chief Minister mocked the Congress effort at finding a replacement for Rahul Gandhi as the opposition party ended up picking someone from the Gandhi family again.
“Khoda pahad, niklee chuhiya,” Manohar Lal Khattar said, using a proverb that suggests big effort but little gain. Literally, it means finding a mouse after digging a mountain. “That too a dead one,” Khattar added.
The BJP leader had targeted both the Congress and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) at the meeting, days ahead of the October 21 Assembly polls in Haryana.
“You know the kind of ‘tamasha’ these family-based parties are doing. Now, within the family too, fights are taking place. On one side there is ‘Pappu’, and on the other ‘Mummy’,” Khattar told the gathering.
The Congress expressed outrage over the mouse remark. “The chief minister’s remarks are inappropriate, he stooped to the lowest level and it also shows the anti-women character of the BJP,” the Congress tweeted.
Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev and Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja slammed Khattar for his comments. The women’s wing of Delhi Congress held a protest, burning Khattar’s effigy.
“We in the Congress are committed to upholding the dignity in public life. But as a woman, I take offence to the disgraceful remark made and demand an unconditional apology,” Sushmita Dev said.
Dev also accused Khattar of lowering public discourse in an attempt to divert attention from real issues like joblessness and acute economic slowdown.
Kumar Selja asked the chief minister to reflect ‘in what light remarks such as these portray women of Haryana and elsewhere’.
“It is because of the mindset of people like you that Haryana has come to be known as the crime capital, which tops the country in crime. Crimes against women are on the rise,” said Selja.
On the Congress manifesto for Haryana, Khattar said, “They have promised freebies for which Rs 1.25 lakh crore will be needed, whichcan never be fulfilled. They are making promises as if the state’s coffers are their ‘baap ka maal’ (their father’s property).”
PTI