Wednesday, 21 October 2020 | PNS | New Delhi
Putting the party in a fix at a time when it is under severe attack from all quarters on the issue, veteran Congress leader Kamal Nath on Tuesday refused to apologise for terming Madhya Pradesh Minister Imarti Devi an “item” even though former Congress president Rahul Gandhi disapproved of his language and termed the incident as “unfortunate”.
In fact, Nath brazened it out saying what Rahul said was his own opinion, but as for him, he has already clarified the context and had nothing to apologise for when he didn’t intend to insult anyone.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said it showed Kamal Nath’s arrogance and by trying hard to justify and defend his remarks he is “committing another crime”.
National Commission for Women chief Rekha Sharma came down hard on Nath saying he is giving “useless explanation” instead of saying sorry and it only showed his character.
On Nath’s remarks, Rahul told reporters, “I think one cannot treat women with disrespect. Kamal Nath ji is from my party but personally, I don’t like the type of language that he used…I don’t appreciate it, regardless of who he is. It is unfortunate.”
His remark came a day after Union Minister Smriti Irani questioned the Gandhi family’s “silence” on the matter and alleged that they will not take action against Nath for his derogatory comment, since people like Nath and Digvijay Singh “keep the fire burning in the Congress family’s kitchen”.
However, reacting to Rahul’s comments, Nath retorted: “It is Rahul Gandhi’s opinion. I have already clarified the context in which I made that statement… Why should I apologise when I did not intend to insult anyone? If anyone felt insulted, I have already expressed regret.”
He also wrote to Chouhan after the latter shot off a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi asking her to take action against Nath. “It would have been better if you would have written to your party president over derogatory remarks made by Ministers of your party,” Nath wrote to Chouhan.
Following this, Chouhan replied: “I believe you should tender an honest apology… Learn to love people of the State. Despite you not belonging to MP, its people are trying to accept you.”
Earlier, Chouhan told mediapersons that Nath was defending himself instead of apologising. “He is trying hard to justify his remarks saying ‘this is item no.1, this is item no.2’. Can he call a senior party leader item? He still has not remembered the name of Imarti Devi. She was a Minister in his Cabinet. Why is he feeling ashamed to call out her name? What is this arrogance,” said Chouhan,
“What happened to you former CM Kamal Nath? You are 74-yr-old and I can’t repeat what you said about BJP’s Imarti Devi…When we objected, he shamelessly called everyone an item including himself…If anyone calls their mother and sister ‘item’, will you tolerate it,” Chouhan asked.
For her part, commenting on the entire episode, the NCW chief said, “It’s (item remark) very demeaning and later, he (Nath) said that he was reading from a list, I want to ask him, in the same list where was he standing? Which item he was?”
“This is disgraceful for him. It shows the character of the person saying it. Instead of saying sorry, he is giving a useless explanation. His party should take strict action against him,” Sharma added.
On Sunday, while campaigning in Dabra, Nath had targeted Imarti Devi, saying the Congress candidate Suresh Raje was a “simple person” unlike his opponent who is an “item”.
Nath has not apologised for the comment so far. Instead, he tried to explain it away as an ordinary term, which he used as he could not remember her name.
