Jharkhand education minister Neera Yadav found herself amidst huge embarrassment on Tuesday, when she as a chief guest at a school paid floral tribute to the former president APJ Abdul Kalam thinking he is dead.
This gaffe was picked up by the local newspaper and became a subject of twitter conversation on Wednesday.
What was quite extraordinary was that she was joined by several fellow BJP leaders, but no one thought there was anything wrong in her action. Kalam had visited the state only two months ago to address a huge gathering in a state’s renowned agricultural university. The chief minister Raghubar Das too was present there.
The minister later clarified that she had merely put a tilak on the picture and the garland on the picture already existed.
Expectedly, twitter users wasted no time in reacting to this story;
User @joydas wrote,
Jharkhand. BJP has maintained same standard in Education Minister everywhere pic.twitter.com/wHphWwOZIo
— Joy (@Joydas) July 22, 2015
User @Komal_Indian tweeted:
This is absolutely crazy !
Illiterate education min of Jharkhand gave #shraddhanjali to APJ sir ?? pic.twitter.com/bm1rNsQJuF— कोमल 🙂 ?? (@Komal_Indian) July 22, 2015
User @starchangemaker had this to say:
Level of education @HRD minister of Jharkhand Mrs. Neera Yadav who offered tribute to APJ Kalam who is still alive. pic.twitter.com/XIsqM5tslp
— Rajesh Kr Das (@starchangemaker) July 22, 2015