New Delhi: BJP MP Giriraj Singh targeted Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a racist remark on Wednesday, questioning whether the party would have accepted her as its chief if the colour of her skin had not been white.
“Rajiv Gandhi koi Nigerian lady se vivah kiye hote, gori chamra na hota to kya Congress party uska netritiva sweekarti kya? (If Rajiv Gandhi had married some Nigerian lady, if she wasn’t white, would the Congress party have given her its leadership?)” Singh was heard saying in footage aired by a TV news channel.
Singh, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Nawada in Bihar, has courted controversy with his comments in the past too.
He embarrassed the BJP during last year’s Lok Sabha polls by saying that those who opposed Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan as there was no place for them in India. Singh, who was earlier a minister in the Bihar government led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, made those remarks in the presence of senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari at a rally.
In other remarks aired by the TV channel on Wednesday, Singh could be seen poking fun at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
“If the Congress was in power, if we weren’t in power, and if Rahulji was the prime minister, and for some reason the prime minister would disappear for 43 to 47 days, then what would have happened?” he said.
“The whole budget session is over but where is Rahulji? This is similar to the disappearance of the Malaysian airliner which has still not been found. The Congress is the opposition party and its leader is not in the budget session, no one knows, the Congress leadership is not prepared to say where he is.”
