Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has stoked a political row after he was seen in a video, pulling down the hijab from a woman's face during a government event in Patna. The opposition condemned the act calling it nothing but public harassment of a woman by the elected Chief Minister.
The viral video involving the 74-year-old chief minister was from an event where Nitish Kumar handed over certificates to AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) doctors. Kumar is seen asking newly recruited AYUSH doctor to remove her hijab and eventually pulls it down, according to news agency PTI.
The incident, a video clip of which has gone viral on social media, took place at ‘Samvad’, the CM's secretariat, where appointment letters were given away to more than 1,000 AYUSH doctors. Mint could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Kumar on Monday distributed appointment letters to newly appointed 1,283 AYUSH doctors at a function in state capital. According to the chief minister's office, the appointees included 685 Aurveda doctors, while 393 were Homeopaths and 205 practised the Unani system of medicine.
Out of them, 10 appointees were handed over job letters by Kumar, while the rest got those online.
When it was the turn of Nusrat Parveen, who had turned up wearing a hijab across her face, Nitish Kumar frowned and exclaimed "what is this?". The chief minister, who stood atop a raised platform, then bent down and pulled the hijab down.
The flustered appointee was, thereafter, hastily pulled aside by an official present on the occasion, while Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, who stood beside Kumar, was seen tugging at the latter's sleeve, in an apparent bid to restrain him.
The opposition parties like the RJD and Congress shared the video clip on their social media accounts, and claimed that the incident was the latest proof of the JD(U) supremo's "unstable mental health".
The Congress party termed Kumar's act ‘vile’ and said he should resign from the chief minister's post, while the RJD wondered whether this was proof of his mental health deteriorating.
"What has happened to Nitish ji? His mental state has now reached a completely pitiable condition," the party wrote in Hindi on X.
‘Public harassment of a woman’: Priyanka Chaturvedi
RJD Spokesperson Ejaz Ahmad said Kumar pulling down the hijab shows the JDU-BJP coalition's attitude towards women.
"Removing a woman's veil is, in a way, an act of snatching away the right to live according to one's culture and religious freedom, which is guaranteed to all by the Indian Constitution and its constitutional system," said Ahmad.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also reacted to the act calling it 'absolutely condemnable'.
What has happened to Nitish ji? His mental state has now reached a completely pitiable condition.
"This is absolutely condemnable and force pulling a woman’s veil down is nothing but public harassment of a woman by the elected CM," she said in a post on X.
