After PM Modi’s Warning, Apology From Minister Who Used Expletive at Rally
NEW DELHI : A union minister has apologized in Parliament for using abusive language at a public meeting in Delhi, which had the government facing opposition fire in both houses. Without taking names, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a stern warning to party MPs against “addressing the nation” out of turn.
“I will not compromise on any such behavior,” PM Modi reportedly said a meeting of party MPs this morning.
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, who joined the government as minister of state last month, had used an expletive on Monday as she questioned a crowd in west Delhi: “You have to decide. Do you want a government of Ramzaadon (followers of Ram) or (those who are illegitimate)?”
Uproar over the words forced both houses of Parliament to adjourn less than an hour after beginning work for the day.”The Prime Minister should give an explanation and remove this minister,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said in the Rajya Sabha.
At the same rally, the minister also took digs at Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son-in-law Robert Vadra, who has been accused of involvement in controversial land deals. “The son of an ordinary family, who sold utensils – Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law – how did this man become a millionaire? They robbed the poor,” she said.
The 47-year-old saffron-robed Niranjan Jyoti is the junior minister for food processing. Known for her religious discourses, the Sadhvi is a first-time MP from Uttar Pradesh and among the six BJP MPs drafted into the party’s campaign for the Delhi polls due early next year.
Before the PM’s warning forced her to apologise, the minister had been defiant about her remarks. “What else do you call people who loot the nation…those who steal from the people and stash it in foreign banks? You tell me what we should call them,” she had told reporters.
Her poor choice of words circulated on social media with hashtags that include abusive minister.
