Non-BJP parties pitched into Narendra Modi on Thursday for his reported comments that Gujarat had recorded high levels of malnutrition because young girls tended to be beauty-conscious. The Wall Street Journal carried an interview with the Gujarat Chief Minister where his reply to a question on malnutrition was that his State was largely vegetarian and middle class, which was more beauty-conscious than health-conscious: “Gujarat is by and large a vegetarian State. And secondly, Gujarat is also a middle-class State. The middle-class is more beauty-conscious than health-conscious – that is a challenge. If a mother tells her daughter to have milk, they’ll have a fight. She’ll tell her mother, ‘I won’t drink milk, I’ll get fat.’” Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni accused Mr. Modi of trivialising a serious issue. She wondered how he could claim to be a good administrator if his attitude to social and gender problems was so immature. The Nationalist Congress Party was shocked that a Chief Minister could make a joke of deprivation. Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal asked Mr. Modi to withdraw the comment.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 09:49:31 +0000
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