“A leader of INDI Alliance said indecent words in the assembly in which mothers, sisters were present. No one can imagine. There is no shame. Not only this, no leader of INDI Alliance was prepared to speak a word against such dangerous insult of sisters, mothers,” a visibly angry Modi told an election rally in Guna in Madhya Pradesh while refraining from mentioning Nitish’s name.
PM on Nitish remarks: How much will you fall?
Slamming the JD(U) leader, Modi said such remarks besmirched the country’s reputation. “How unfortunate for the country. How much you will fall and you are insulting the country,” he added.
Amid surging outrage over his remarks, Nitish offered an apology. “If my words were wrong, then I apologise for that. If anyone got hurt by my words, I take them back,” he told reporters.
With an aggressive BJP demanding his resignation for insulting women, Nitish followed up the regret by saying, “I also condemn my own speech.” But that failed to pacify the BJP which escalated the issue into a question of his eligibility to hold office by bringing up his “memory loss”.
Bihar: BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha slams Nitish Kumar for his derogatory remarks, says ‘CM must resign’
“I feel ashamed as a Bihari. The obscene gutter language indicates that Nitish ji has lost his mind. We were already hearing that he keeps forgetting names of his close colleagues,” said Union power minister R K Singh. Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly Vijay Sinha accused Nitish of humiliating women and said that he had ceased to be eligible to be a member of the House.
“He has lost his memory and needs to step down,” he told reporters.
Significantly, Sinha raised questions about the health and mental faculty of Nitish, venturing into a territory that politicians have so far avoided. “His memory loss is complete and he needs to be examined since it is a coterie of corrupt officers and a few others who have taken charge and have been running the affairs,” the BJP leader, breaking free of the restraint that politicians have so far exercised.
‘I take my words back,’ says Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on his derogatory remarks
Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, however, came out in support of Nitish. “Whatever the CM was saying was about sex education. People become hesitant over this topic, but it is taught in schools — in science, biology. Children learn this. He said what needs to be done practically to control the population. This should not be taken in a wrong manner, but as sex education,” he told reporters.
Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, an MLC from the RJD, told PTI she agreed that what Nitish had said was not proper “but we should let bygones be bygones since he has apologised”. JD(U) leader K C Tyagi said there should be no politics over the CM’s remarks.