‘You are a woman, don’t you know anything?’ Nitish Kumar tells a woman MLA
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Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told a protesting Opposition MLA in the Assembly on Wednesday that "You are a woman, don't you know anything?" triggering even greater protest from the Opposition including the Congress.
Senior RJD leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav called Kumar a habitual offender in his comments against women.
The RJD and the Congress MLAs attacked Kumar, raising slogans like 'Nitish Kumar Hai Hai' (Down with Nitish Kumar), over what they said his government's "failures" on reservation and special status for Bihar.
The incident comes a month after the Patna High Court struck down his government’s plan to increase the reservation cap in government jobs and educational institutions to 65%.
Alongside, the Union government refused to grant special status to Bihar even though Kumar’s the Janata Dal United (JDU) is part of the Modi administration.
Kumar vainly tried to pacify the Opposition saying his government has taken steps to challenge the Patna High Court's decision in the Supreme Court.
During the protest, Kumar exploded at an MLA saying: ‘You are a woman, don't you know anything? Look, she is talking. Have you [the opposition] done anything for women? We will talk and if you don't listen, its your [the opposition's] fault’, NDTV reported.
Reacting to his remarks, Tejashwi Yadav posted in Hindi on X, "'You are a woman, do you know anything?' Making cheap, unwanted, uncivilised, rude and low-level comments against women has become a habit of Honourable Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. This is a very serious and worrying issue for the state."
The RJD leader also said that Kumar made a lewd comment on the beauty of a BJP woman MLA from the tribal class a few days ago, and today he attacked a two-time Scheduled Caste woman MLA Rakha Paswan.
Kumar previously courted controversy in November last year when he said women had to be educated to help them to avoid sexual intercourse leading to pregnancy.