UP minister faces backlash over remarks on Nitish Kumar's hijab incident: 'What if he touched somewhere else?'

Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Sanjay Nishad on Tuesday triggered a fresh controversy with his insensitive remarks on Nitish Kumar’s recent act of pulling down the hijab of a Muslim woman.

Nishad, whose NISHAD Party is part of the BJP-led NDA in UP, wondered what would have happened had the Bihar chief minister’s “hands touched somewhere else”.

In an interview to a news outlet, Nishad said: “He is also a man ... why is there so much controversy over removing a naqab? His hands only touched her face. If his hands had touched somewhere else, what would have happened then?”

The remarks even took the journalist by surprise, who asked for clarification from the minister. He repeated: “There’s so much issue over the naqab. What if he had touched somewhere else on the face, or his hands had brushed something else, what then?”

Nishad later issued a clarification on his statement, saying that it was not meant to insult any woman or community. "The statement over which a controversy is being created today was said by me, smiling, casually, and in my local Bhojpuri dialect. There was no ill intention towards any community, any woman, or any religion, nor was there any intent to insult," he told PTI.