Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s use of an improvised timeworn cliché against Congress president Sonia Gandhi has outraged India’s oldest party.

In his poll rally at Kharkhoda near Sonipat on Sunday, Khattar took a dig at the Congress saying all they managed was picking someone from the Gandhi family again  (after Rahul Gandhi resigned as party president).

“Khoda pahad, niklee chuhiya,” he said, using a popular Hindi proverb that suggests big effort but little gain. Literally, it means finding a mouse after digging a mountain. In itself the proverb was not at all offensive, but Khattar went on to add, “That too a dead one,” and this created a furore.

The Chief Minister had targeted both the Congress and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) at the meeting. “You know the kind of ‘tamasha’ these family-based parties are doing. Now, within the family too, fights are taking place. On one side there is ‘Pappu’, and on the other ‘Mummy’,” he said.

Reacting to the mouse remarks of Khattar, the Congress demanded an immediate apology. “The Chief Minister’s remarks are inappropriate, he stooped to the lowest level and it also shows the anti-women character of the BJP,” the Congress tweeted.

On Monday, Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev and Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja slammed Khattar. Dev said Khattar’s remarks are a clear reflection of his and the BJP’s disrespectful attitude towards women.

“We in the Congress are committed to upholding the dignity in public life. But as a woman, I take offence to the disgraceful remark made and demand an unconditional apology,” she said. 

Dev accused Khattar of lowering public discourse in an attempt to divert attention from real issues like joblessness and acute economic slowdown.

“In what light remarks such as these portray women of Haryana and elsewhere.  It is because of the mindset of people like you that Haryana has come to be known as the crime capital, which tops the country in crime. Crimes against women are on the rise,” Selja said.

At another poll rally week ago, Khattar had accused the Congress of sympathising with terrorists and said Sonia Gandhi “sheds tears for militants”.

In Sonipat, he also took potshots at the Congress over the exit of its State unit chief Ashok Tanwar, who quit the party after alleging that bribes were being paid for tickets to fight elections. On the Congress manifesto, Khattar said, “They have promised freebies for which Rs 1.25 lakh crore will be needed, which can never be fulfilled. They are making promises as if the State’s coffers are their ‘’baap ka maal’’ (their father’s property).”  He also targeted the JJP, formed after a split in the Indian National Lok Dal. “This party, Jhootee Jhagda Party, will become the Jamanat Jabt Party as its candidates will lose badly,” he said, predicting that JJP candidates will lose their deposits.  He called JJP leader Dushyant Chautala a “gappu”, saying he just talked big.