Giriraj’s colour slur on Sonia kicks up storm

Tribune News Service & Agencies

New Delhi, April 1

Union Minister Giriraj Singh is in the eye of the storm yet again, this time over his racist barb at Congress president Sonia Gandhi asking whether the party would have accepted her leadership “if she was not white-skinned”.

The minister was forced to apologise after his below-the-belt remarks prompted the Opposition party to seek his dismissal from the Narendra Modi government.

Singh, during an “off-the-record” interaction with the media in Hajipur on Tuesday, jocularly asked Sonia whether “white skin” had been her ticket to securing the top job in the Congress.

Singh was quoted as saying: “Rajiv Gandhi koi Nigerian lady se viyah kiye hote, gori chamra na hota to kya Congress usko netritya sweekar karti kya?” (Had Rajiv Gandhi married a Nigerian lady and not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have made her the president then?) Poking fun at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, he said: “If the Congress was in power, if we weren’t in power, and if Rahulji was the PM, and for some reason the PM would disappear for 43 to 47 days, then what would have happened?”

The BJP decided not to defend the “serial offender” who invited immediate backlash from social media, Opposition parties, including the Congress, and women groups.

The Congress demanded an apology from the PM  and immediate dismissal of Singh. “The Congress strongly deprecates and condemns the intemperate and distasteful remarks of Union Minister Giriraj Singh bordering on insanity... PM must dismiss such a minister and apologise to the nation,” said Randeep Surjewala, party’s communication department in-charge.

Surjewala said it appeared the continuous quest to appease Modi had made Singh “lose his balance”. Singh later expressed regret, saying: “It was never my intention. Moreover it was a private conversation. The remarks were not part of the media interaction.” Sources in the BJP said the top leadership was not impressed by the off-hand regret he offered “at the instructions of a senior leader”.

“The top leadership is very upset over his careless, distasteful and racist remarks against the Congress president in particular and women in general. He is a Union Minister so the final call will be taken by the Prime Minister but he was given an earful by a senior leader who asked him to apologise,” a source said.

Sources, however, asserted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah were not satisfied with the “regret” on the comment that had resulted in “unnecessary trouble for the party”. In fact there was also a talk of disciplinary action against the man notorious for outrageous comments.

Singh, who was charged with delivering a hate speech ahead of the 2014 election when he pledged that critics and opponents of Modi would be forced to move to Pakistan after the BJP came to power, is a key man in his party’s plan of action to wrest the caste-divided Bihar from the JD-U.

The powerful upper caste Bhumihar leader is known to have gained more political strength with every controversy he generated. He was embroiled in another row following the recovery of Rs 1.14 crore from his home. 

Goa CM, Sharad too face flak

• Goa CM Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday advised agitating nurses against staging hunger strike in the sun because it would make them ‘dark’ and ‘ruin their marital prospects’
• JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, too, courted controversy saying the figure of a person was more important than his or her complexion

What he said

“Had Rajiv Gandhi married a Nigerian lady and not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have made her the president then?”

— Giriraj Singh, union minister

Nigeria raises objection

“We expect the minister to withdraw the comments and apologise to the Nigerian people. We will notify our government about the issue”

— OB Okongor, Acting High Commissioner, Nigeria