Patna: A Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) minister in Bihar has triggered a major controversy by stating that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was inducted into the Congress party “because of her pretty face”. The minister Vinod Narayan Jha holds the public health and engineering portfolio in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar.
“Except for being beautiful, I see no quality that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be credited with. Nature has showered its bounty on her but the Congress should remember that votes can’t be won on the basis of beautiful faces,” the minister told the media on Thursday.
The other drawback for her, the minister added, is that she is wife of Robert Vadra who is an accused in land scam and other corruption cases. The minister launched the attack on the Gandhi family member shortly after she was appointed the party’s general secretary and handed over the charge for the eastern Uttar Pradesh, a key Indian state with 80 Lok Sabha seats.
Except for being beautiful, I see no quality that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be credited with. Nature has showered its bounty on her but the Congress should remember that votes can’t be won on the basis of beautiful faces
The remarks drew strong comments from various quarters. Not only the opposition Grand Alliance but even the Janata Dal United (JD-U), BJP’s very own ally headed by chief minister Kumar, disapproved off the comments, terming it “unfair and unwarranted”.
“Priyanka Gandhi has her own aura and following. Such comments are unfair. We don’t support it,” a JD-U leader Ashok Chaudhary said adding one should be very careful while passing remarks on others in politics.
The Congress strongly condemned the minister’s remarks and sought his dismissal from the cabinet. “The minister should either be sacked from the cabinet or his security be beefed as his remarks are set to invite strong protests,” Congress lawmaker Prem Chandra Mishra told the media on Friday. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), on the other hand, termed the minister as anti-women.
The opposition is also anguished at the remarks made by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan over Priyanka. Mahajan in her statement had said Congress president Rahul Gandhi couldn’t manage his party alone and hence he is taking help from his sister.
“Priyanka is a good woman but her appointment also shows Rahul has understood that he cannot do politics alone, so he asked his sister Priyanka to help him,” Mahajan was learnt to have told the media in Indore on Thursday.
“I don’t want to get into the family politics of the Congress, it’s their own matter. But I would definitely say that a person, who has leadership capabilities, should be given an opportunity to come forward,” she added.
