Madhya Pradesh’s insensitive minister Kusum Mehdele has kicked off a fresh controversy by justifying her act of kicking a boy after he approached her for help.
She has claimed that the 14-year-old boy was drunk.
You can watch the video of Kusum Mehdele kicking the boy here
https://youtu.be/W2LHVgGKgU0
In a statement, she wrote, “The person who fell on my feet was a 20-year-old boy who was highly intoxicated and had lost his balance… As a result, I avoided him and moved towards my car and went to attend a meeting with district officials.”
The boy in the video was heard pleading, “ek rupiya de do didi.” Little did the little boy know that his plea for just one rupee would be reciprocated by a hard kick in his head by a visibly arrogant lady minister.
MP government had earlier denied reports that Mehdele ever kicked a boy.
Mehdele was reportedly summoned by the chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, on Tuesday, but she did not turn up for the cabinet meeting.
The boy had later said, “I had simply asked for five rupees from Jiji (as the minister is popularly known) as I was hungry and wanted to buy some food.”
The incident occurred at a bus stand near the district headquarters in this Madhya Pradesh district where Mehdele, who is also the local legislator, had come to participate in a cleanliness drive to mark the sprawling central Indian state’s foundation day.
The opposition Congress demanded Mehdele, who holds the horticulture and food processing and the animal husbandry portfolios, be sacked. State party spokesman K.K. Mishra said she had no right to remain in her position for “even one minute more”.