Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has set off angry reactions after he said that a wife after a few years of marriage becomes less attractive. The Congress party, apparently after instructions from its top leadership, has asked Mr Jaiswal for an explanation. The minister has apologised for his comment, made at a poetry meet in a women's college in Kanpur on Sunday night, but has defended his statement telling NDTV that it was "very easy to delete words" from a recording and suggested a conspiracy.