Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Rabri Devi on Saturday hit back at Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party member Ashwini Kumar Choubey over his comment that she should stay veiled.
Earlier on Saturday, Choubey, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, had said, “What do I say about Rabri Devi? She is like my sister-in-law. It would be better if she remains in ghoonghat [veiled]”.
“BJP’s slogan is ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ [the party’s campaign to educate the girl child] but such insult of daughters? It’s insulting towards all women,” ANI quoted Rabri Devi as saying. “I want to ask him, will he ask women leaders in BJP to stay under veil and at home?”
Choubey made the remark when a reporter questioned him on Rabri Devi’s allegations of fissures in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in Bihar. Rabri Devi, a former Bihar chief minister, had on Friday claimed that poll strategist Prashant Kishor had visited Lalu Prasad Yadav several times to broker a realignment with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and put up a joint prime ministerial candidate for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
RJD, JD(U) and Congress were part of a grand alliance or mahagathbandhan in Bihar. In 2017, however, Kumar broke off from the alliance and tied-up with the BJP in Bihar.
Choubey denied that there was any trouble in the NDA, before hitting out at Rabri Devi. Kishor too retaliated by challenging RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to a debate where he claimed the truth would emerge.
Rabri Devi also continued her attack against Choubey on social media. In a series of tweets, she accused the BJP of being anti-women and said they should first ask their women leaders including Union ministers Smriti Irani, Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman to be in veil.
In a statement shared by the party on Facebook, she said, “Ashwini Choubey’s remark is an insult to all women in the country. He wants to say that all the women who come out of the veil and work or join public life and take care of their children should not step out of home.”
Earlier this month, a police case was filed against Choubey for allegedly misbehaving with an election officer who had stopped his convoy in Buxar, Bihar, where the minister was campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections. Choubey is the current MP from Buxar and is seeking re-election. He was booked along with 149 others for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct, according to NDTV.
Choubey had gotten into an argument with Sub-Divisional Magistrate KK Upadhyay who had stopped him for allegedly holding a public meeting beyond the permissible time limit set by the Election Commission.
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