Haryana’s incumbent Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has courted a fresh controversy after he used mari hui chuhiya (dead mouse) jibe for the interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Speaking at an event, Khattar criticised the Congress for promoting dynasty politics after Rahul Gandhi quit as the president of the party in the wake of a humiliating defeat in this year’s Lok Sabha polls.
He said, “First it was Pappu Chaudhary, who said he didn’t want to remain the president of the party after losing the Lok Sabha elections. Rahul baba quit the president’s post and said, ‘bring in a new president.’ Who would be his successor? Someone from outside the Gandhi family? I said ‘he’s making sense.’ Moving away from the dynasty is a good thing. We should appreciate good things even about our rivals, shouldn’t we?”
Khattar continued, “But, they (Congress leaders) began to roam around the country in search of Rahul Gandhi’s successor. They spent three months just searching for the new president. And after three months, who became (the president)? Sonia Gandhi. Once again the same Gandhi family.”
He concluded by using the ‘dead mouse’ jibe for Sonia Gandhi as he said, “Khoda pahad, nikli chuhiya. Woh bhi mari hui. (We dug up the mountain only to discover a mouse. That too a dead mouse.”
पहले पप्पू चौधरी था फिर माँ को अध्यक्ष बना दिया, “खोदा पहाड़ निकली चुहिया”, क्या मुख्यमंत्री जी सोनिया गांधी की तुलना चुहिया से कर रहे हैं ?-@mlkhattar pic.twitter.com/FJray9oBHb
— Aadesh Rawal (@AadeshRawal) October 13, 2019
Reacting to Khattar’s comments, the Congress tweeted in Hindi, “Not only are the comments made by the BJP’s Chief Minister cheap and objectionable, it also shows the anti-women character of the BJP. We condemn Chief Minister ML Khattar’s remark and demand an immediate apology from him.”
This is not the first time Khattar has courted controversy for his anti-women remarks. Reacting to the central government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 on Jammu and Kashmir, Khattar had joked stating that the ‘route to Kashmir is cleared and now we will bring girls from Kashmir.’
He was forced to issue a clarification after facing widespread condemnation.
Haryana goes to polls on 21 October with the counting scheduled for 24 October.
