File Photo: Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar. (Press Trust of India)
Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has denied advising a group of nurses that they should not protest in the sun as it would darken their complexion and ruin their prospects of marriage.
The sexist remarks have been attributed to him by nurses who met him on Tuesday, but are not on camera.
"When we went to the Chief Minister with our problems, instead of listening to us, he was more concerned about our complexion. (He said) earlier you were pretty and fair and now you are dark. If you keep sitting on hunger strike you will face problems with marriage proposals," said Seema Pedlekar, one of the nurses.
"I said nothing of the sort," the Chief Minister told reporters as the purported remarks drew sharp criticism.
The nurses have been sitting on a hunger strike for the past few days against a private ambulance service hired by the state government.
Mr Parsekar was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying he had told a nurse that she "appeared different" after sitting in the sun.
"I never spoke about the marriage proposals or any such thing. It was just a passing remark because I had seen that girl earlier and found a difference when I saw her again," PTI quoted him as saying.
Another BJP leader, union minister Giriraj Singh, has blundered into a massive controversy with his racist comments on Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
"If Rajiv Gandhi had married a Nigerian lady and not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have accepted her leadership?" Mr Singh said on Tuesday in Bihar.
He later expressed regret after being summoned by a senior union minister.