Madhya Pradesh Tribal and Scheduled Caste Welfare Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah resigned late Tuesday night following a major controversy over his alleged sexist remarks in the presence of school girls at a summer camp in Jhabua a couple of days back.
However, Shah claimed that he had no regrets because he did nothing wrong. “I have not committed rape or any other crime for which I should be ashamed of,” he told media persons after tendering his resignation.
He further said, “There is no point in a blame game. But, the portion of my speech that was reported, was manipulated. I am unhappy as my words have been misinterpreted. And, as my CM and others are hurt because of me, I have resigned. The CM never asked for my resignation.”
Shah met the state BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar at his house in Bhopal around 1 am last night. After the meeting, both Shah and Singh went to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s residence where the Minister submitted his resignation.
The Chief Minister told media persons that he had accepted Shah’s resignation and had forwarded it to the Governor. The Governor accepted it early in the morning.
On Sunday, the Tribal Welfare Minister, while addressing tribal girls at a summer camp in Jhabua district, allegedly made some sexist comments against BJP leader Nirmala Bhuria and the Chief Minister’s wife Sadhna Singh.
Shah on Monday appeared in a fire-fighting mode after his speech received sharp criticism from the Congress and also did not go down well with his own party members. He personally invited journalists for a press conference in Indore to clarify what he had said in the speech.
This is not the first time that Shah has been in a controversy. In 2010, he was highly criticised for organising belly dance show near a holy shrine in Malgaon. A few years ago, when he was the Forest Minister, he allegedly organized a grand birthday celebration at government expense.
Notably, the Mahila Congress had demonstrated against Shah and carried placards stating ‘Sadhna ke samman mein, Congress maidan mein’ (for protecting honour of Sadhna, Congress on the streets), to embarrass the BJP leadership on the issue.