India
Union Minister Giriraj Singh has again kicked up a major row; this time with racist remarks asking whether Congress would have accepted Sonia Gandhi's leadership if she was not white-skinned, comments that were slammed by a furious Congress which asked the Prime Minister to dismiss him and apologise to the nation. "Had Rajiv Gandhi married a Nigerian woman and if she was not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have then accepted her leadership?," he told journalists on Tuesday.
Updated : Apr 02, 2015, 07:27 AM IST
Union Minister Giriraj Singh has again kicked up a major row; this time with racist remarks asking whether Congress would have accepted Sonia Gandhi's leadership if she was not white-skinned, comments that were slammed by a furious Congress which asked the Prime Minister to dismiss him and apologise to the nation. "Had Rajiv Gandhi married a Nigerian woman and if she was not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have then accepted her leadership?," he told journalists on Tuesday.
The BJP leadership has distanced itself from the remarks. While being critical of personal attacks, it castigated the Congress for targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Various women leaders also attacked Singh, who is Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, saying it reflected his racial mindset. The Minister, who had courted controversies with remarks like those opposed to Narendra Modi can go to Pakistan, also mocked Rahul Gandhi's absence from the political scene and likened it to the "missing Malaysian airliner".
Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar is also in the eye of a storm over his alleged advise to agitating nurses that they should not stage hunger strike in the sun because it will make them 'dark' and 'ruin their marital prospects'.
—With input from agencies
Nigerian envoy deplores 'racist' remark
Nigerian High Commissioner O B Okongor on Wednesday dubbed the 'racist' remark made by Minister of State for MSME Giriraj Singh as deplorable, saying his nation would initiate certain action but cautiously, so that it does not destroy the bilateral relationship between both nations.