Bhopal: BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh have, of late, developed a “foot-in-mouth” syndrome, which has on more than one occasion given chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the party the blushes. The first victim of this syndrome is state BJP president Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan.
He had blamed Pakistan for the ghastly Kathua incident in which an eight-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Jammu, leaving the BJP red faced, which prompted his sacking from the MP party president's post on April 18.
His foot-in-the-mouth comment on the Kathua incident, coming at a time when Opposition parties were baying for the Narendra Modi government’s blood on the issue, had hastened his removal from the post. Defeat of the BJP in Assembly by-elections held in MP in the past several months, was said to be another reason for his ouster from the post.
Mr Chouhan had earlier received a rap on the knuckles by the BJP top leadership for making unsavoury comments and was advised to restrain himself.
This is not all. He had earlier put the state government in an awkward situation when he had said politicians were bound to help criminals, provoking the Congress to accuse the ruling party of harbouring anti-socials.
Incidentally, his “insensitive” comments, at a time when gang-rape incidents rocked Bhopal, led the Congress to attack the state government for not being able to arrest the growing crime against women in the state.
“By making such comments we are giving fodder to the Congress to show the BJP government in a bad light,” a senior party leader said, on condition of anonymity.
Much to the chagrin of the party, the spiteful one-liners were not Mr Chouhan's sole proprietorship. Quite a number of senior party leaders, including some ministers, had also indulged in making comments oblivious to the fact that they have not only driven a wedge between them and the people, but also dent the party’s image.
BJP MLA from Bengu, Suresh Dhakad, had threatened to chop off Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia’s tongue if the latter continued his tirade against chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He issued the warning while campaigning for BJP candidate in the recent Assembly by-elections to Kolaras in Shivpuri district. Congress had cashed in on the BJP MLA's remarks to generate sympathy for the party candidate in Kolaras by-polls.
“The party leadership takes note of such comments and issues warnings to such leaders to temper their tongues,” a senior BJP leader said, unwilling to be quoted. “The party is worried to notice the growing tendency among some leaders to exhibit un-politician-like behaviour in public. The foot-in-the-mouth syndrome seems to be taking an epidemic form in the ruling party in MP,” he observed.
State agriculture minister Gouri Shankar Bisen’s reaction to the demand by some villagers in a MP district last year was the most insensitive. He had said that the villagers, facing acute water crisis, would be provided “Bisleri” water, a mineral water brand, provoking the locals to counsel him not to rub salt in their wounds by making such “irresponsible” and “insensitive” comments.
Since then he has earned the sobriquet of the male version of Marie-Antoinette, the French queen, who had infamously asked her subjects during French Revolution to eat cake if they could not afford bread.
The foot-in-the-mouth comments do not end here. State cooperation minister Viswas Sarang had riled the electorate when he said that those who did not vote for the BJP are “Pakistanis”.
Similarly, BJP MLA Rameswar Sharma had recently triggered protests when he dubbed the farmers’ suicides in MP as a “fashion”.
Prabir Jain, a psychologist, said, “It is a manifestation of arrogance (of power). It is also a sign of frustration among the politicians who sense erosion of their base.”
Another BJP leader Manohar Utwal had said he has the ability to make o critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the chief minister “disappear”.
