BHOPAL: BJP minister Kunwar Vijay Shah from Madhya Pradesh has sparked controversy with a veiled remark about Colonel Sofia Qureshi, one of the two female public faces of the Indian Armed Forces during Operation Sindoor.
Addressing a Halma (traditional practice among tribals for community support and environment conservation) in Indore district’s Mhow on Monday, the tribal affairs minister Kunwar Vijay Shah, while lauding PM Narendra Modi’s leadership over Operation Sindoor to avenge the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, said, “Those who widowed our daughters, we sent the sister of the same katey-pitey log (same torn people) to screw them.”
Adding in the same vein at the event in Indore’s Mhow subdivision (which houses one of the major bases of the country's armed forces), the MP minister said, “They (terrorists) undressed and killed our Hindus. Now, Modiji couldn’t have done the same, so he sent a sister from their (terrorists) society, to ensure that if you widowed our sisters, a sister of yours will come and undress you. He (PM Modi) had declared that India will strike the terrorists in their home and bury them, which he did.”
Sharing the MP minister’s controversial speech, the All India Congress posted on ‘X,’ “The brave daughters of our army are sisters of terrorists – this disgusting utterance has been made by MP minister Vijay Shah. This shameful statement has been made about the daughters of India, whom everyone is proud of. They have been described as sisters of terrorists, which is an insult to our mighty army,"he said.
"In such a situation, the question is that Vijay Shah who calls himself very close to PM Narendra Modi, will the BJP take his resignation. Will PM Modi and BJP leaders apologize for the MP minister’s petty thinking. Or, like every time, will Vijay Shah also be promoted for this bad thinking and rallies will be organized in his support," he asked.
Demanding that the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav sack the concerned cabinet minister from the state’s council of ministers, the MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari said, “The minister’s public utterance is the collective responsibility of the state’s council of ministers. The minister needs to be sacked immediately, failing which it will be understood that the council of ministers headed by Dr Mohan Yadav congrues with Shah’s indecent remarks.”
Realising that his Monday’s public utterances in Mhow (Indore) in the presence of ex-minister and BJP’s current local MLA Usha Thakur had caused major embarrassment for him and his party, Shah clarified on Tuesday that his words have been misconstrued on social media.
“I come from a military family background, some of whom have been martyred during the Kargil War. If I spoke something with a heavy heart due to the anger over Pahalgam terror attack killings, I am ready to apologise. I salute sister Sofia, who rose above communal and caste lines to make India proud. She is more respectable than my own sister. If any community or religion has been hurt due to my utterances, I apologise for it,” he posted.
Shah, the 62-year-old senior tribal politician of the BJP, who has been winning from Harsud-ST seat of southwestern MP’s Khandwa district for long, has kicked up political rows in the past too due to his public utterances.
Back in April 2013, he had to resign as the state’s scheduled caste and scheduled tribe welfare minister, reportedly in the wake of his sexual innuendos about some women BJP leaders and then MP CM (and current union agriculture minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s wife Sadhna Singh.
In March 2024, he had suggested that the department of posts appoint actor-turned-BJP MP Hema Malini as brand ambassador to get more deposits into its investment and saving schemes.
“Make her (Malini) the brand ambassador and then tell me, as we’re Hema Malini’s patthe. We’ll get all the money of poor people out from the banks and put it in the post office,” he had said while inaugurating the post office passport service center in his native Khandwa district.