From calling the Peshawar attack as a ‘friendly fight’ to blatantly stating that Congress wouldn’t have accepted Sonia Gandhi as the party president had she not been a ‘fair-skinned lady’, Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Giriraj Singh has said things that are either outrightly appalling or plain outlandish. After making controversial remarks about Rohingya Muslims, Singh has once again sparked another row saying that the Indian Muslims are descendants of Lord Ram.
Singh told the media in Jodhpur that Hindus and Muslims are from the same lineage and that Muslims in India should come forward and help in building Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Here’s what he said, as reported by The Indian Express:
Hum aur Musalman, dono ek he vanshaj ke hain. Yahan ka koi Muslaman Babur ka aulaad nahi hai. Yahan ka Musalman jo hai Ram ka aulaad hai…Isiliye Musalman bhai, Shia aagey barhe hain, Sunni bhi aagey barhein aur samaj ki samrasta banane mein wo bhi aagey barh kar ke, ek eenta hum daalenge, ek eenta Musalmaan bhai bhi daalen kyunki purvajon ka hum mandir bana rahe hain.
(We (Hindus) and Muslims are from the same lineage. Here, no Muslim is a child of the Mughal Emperor Babur. All Muslims are a child of Lord Ram…So Muslim brothers, Shias have come forward and Sunnis should also come forward for social harmony. We will lay one brick and Muslim brother should lay other brick because we are building the temple for our ancestors)
As the Union Minister continues to defy logic, we have compiled a list of ‘thought-provoking’ statements that Singh has given so far:
1) On minority status of Muslims in India
Commenting on a report by ‘Pew Research Centre’ Singh in March this year, Singh said that the government should roll back the ‘minority status’ of the Muslims. “Today, looking at the growing population of Muslims in the country, the government should rollback the ‘minority status’ allotted to the community,” he had said.
Check out his tweet:
हिंदुस्तान में मुस्लिम की जनसंख्या इतनी है की उन्हें अब अल्पसंख्यक से बाहर होना चाहिए,आज देश को जरूरत है अल्पसंख्यक की परिभाषा पर एक बहस की। pic.twitter.com/lm3Mgalf66
— Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) March 4, 2017
2) On Hindu population
Talking to the media in Patna last year, Singh had said that Hindus should consider increasing their population by producing more children. Here’s what he said as per an IANS report:
There is a need to increase population of Hindus in the country. They should take this issue seriously as their population has been decreasing in eight states in the country.
3) On Congress President Sonia Gandhi
Back in 2015, Singh had kicked a major row by saying that Congress wouldn’t have accepted Sonia Gandhi as the party president had she not been a ‘fair-skinned lady’. Here’s what Singh had said:
Had Rajiv Gandhi married a Nigerian woman and if she was not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have then accepted her leadership?
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He later retracted from his statement saying that it was said ‘off the record’ and that media was blowing it out of proportion.
4) On Peshawar attack
Reacting to the attack on the school in Peshawar in which 141 people including 132 children were killed by Taliban militants in December 2014, Singh said that it was a ‘friendly fight’. Here’s what he said:
Whatever is happening in Pakistan is called a friendly fight.
5) On Nitish Kumar
Launching a scathing attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar back in 2013, Singh had said that he was behaving like a ‘dehati aurat’ and quarrelling with the then BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi out of jealousy. Here’s what he told the reporters in Patna:
He is behaving like a dehati aurat (rural woman) and quarrelling with Narendra Modi out of jealousy.
(GIF Source: GIPHY)
