Madhya Pradesh: Minister hurls ‘Shakuni Mama’ & Kaurava barbs at BJP

BHOPAL: The political storm over former BJP minister Badrilal Yadav’s offensive remark against the Rajgarh collector took an ‘epic’ turn on Thursday when minister P C Sharma compared CM Kamal Nath with Lord Krishna and BJP leaders to ‘Shakuni Mama’ and the Kauravas from The Mahabharata.
BJP took strong exception to this, and suggested that Nath send his cabinet ministers for courses in meditation
On Wednesday, in the aftermath of Yadav’s comment, Congress spokesman Durgesh Sharma had likened BJP to the Kauravas.Law minister P C Sharma continued with the Mahabharata theme to corner BJP on Thursday.
“The offensive language and the kind of words used against a woman bureaucrat are very unfortunate and highly condemnable,” Sharma told mediapersons on Thursday morning, adding: “The incident occurred in the presence of Shakuni Mama and it was only after indication from Duryodhana that Dushasana went ahead with the ‘chirharan’.”
Top state BJP leaders — including former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state party president Rakesh Singh and LOP Gopal Bhargava — were on the dais when Yadav made the remark in Biaora on Wednesday. Sharma didn’t specify who he meant by Shakuni Mama, Duryodhana and Dushasana. “This country respects women and worships Durga, Saraswati and Laxmi,” he said.
On BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s comment that the “virus of JNU has reached Madhya Pradesh”, Sharma said: “There is no virus of JNU here. Rather, it is the virus of Rani Laxmibai and Indira Gandhi. And if women officers face any difficulty while maintaining law and order in the state, then chief minister Kamal Nath will stand behind them like Lord Krishna.”
BJP reacted strongly to Sharma’s ‘Shakuni Mama’ and ‘Kaurava’ barbs. State BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agarwal said, “Chief minister Kamal Nath should send his cabinet ministers for a course in Vipassana meditation to get rid of their mental disturbances. Every other day, the state government’s ministers give statements that spark a controversy — be it Jitu Patwari in Dewas, Kamleshwar Patel in Rewa or P C Sharma in Harda earlier this week. Ministers are not doing their work, but creating controversies with their meaningless statements.”
On Wednesday, Durgesh Sharma had used the same metaphor of the Mahabharata, comparing BJP to Kauravas. “On Indian soil, even the arrogance of Kauravas was crushed. Kauravas had made the same mistake that the BJP leadership is making,” he had said.