Surendra Narayan Singh was reacting to Mayawati's tweet targeting PM Modi without referring to him
A BJP lawmaker has provoked outrage with his sexist comments on Mayawati, the chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which mark a new low in political language in the acrimonious run-up to next month's national election. Surendra Narayan Singh, a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, is a repeat offender.
"She (Mayawati) does a facial every day. The person who does a facial daily is telling our PM (Narendra Modi) that he is 'shaukeen (one who likes fancy clothes)'," Surendra Narayan Singh told news agency ANI on Tuesday.
"Wearing clothes is not being shaukeen. Colouring one's hair at 60 to look young is 'shaukeen'. Her hair has turned grey but she dyes it black," said the BJP leader, who represents the Rohaniya constituency of UP.
The lawmaker was reacting to Mayawati's tweet targeting PM Modi without referring to him.
"The person who lives life in royal comfort, against the principle of simple living and high thinking, advertised himself as a 'chaiwallah' in the last Lok Sabha election for the sake of the vote. Now he is declaring himself as chowkidar with pomp and show for votes in the elections. The country is really changing?" Mayawati had tweeted in Hindi earlier in the day.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati's alliance partner for the national election, hit out at the BJP leader.
"Mayawatiji has spent her life fighting the privileged who want to keep us in our place and submit to their will. They want women to follow what they prescribe. The BJP represents the past and wants us to return to it. We fight for a better future. It's time for #MahaParivartan," Akhilesh Yadav tweeted.
Surendra Narayan Singh is prone to outrageous comments and seems to have learnt little from the wide condemnation of his previous gaffes.
Last year, he had said that "even Lord Ram cannot prevent rapes". Before that, he had commented, while supporting rape-accused BJP colleague Kuldip Sengar in the Unnao case, that "no one can rape a mother of three children".