Just when you thought enough BJP ministers have said seemingly controversial things, several other leaders from the ruling party have joined the list. This time, Rajasthan MLA Arjun Lal Garg has advised the Dewasi community to smuggle gold instead of drugs. He also went ahead and claimed that there is a “matter of pride” in being caught while smuggling gold, a PTI report said.
Garg made the remark during a meeting he had called to address the problem of drug addiction in the Dewasi community. He pointed out that many people lodged in Jodhpur jail under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act belonged to this community. Expressing his concern over how young people were falling prey to the use of drugs, the MLA told the community that instead of smuggling drugs which is a non bailable offense, they should smuggle gold where bail is easily obtainable.
“If you wanted to do some no. 2 (illegal) business, do the business of gold. Prices of both are the same but it was safer to do gold business than drug,” he said, according to the PTI report.
Biplab Deb with BJP President Amit Shah | Source: Indian Express
The BJP lawmaker also asked the elders of the community to pledge that they will indulge in the smuggling of gold and not in the smuggling of drugs.
The minister’s address at the consecration ceremony of a temple in village Jaitawas of Biara on May 7 went viral as a video clip of it surfaced on Wednesday.
This is not first time that BJP ministers have taken to offering free advice. And sometimes, have gone too far.
Only yesterday, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma claimed that journalism and live telecasting started during Mahabharata.
He said the mythological character, Sanjaya, sitting in Hastinapur, gave Dhritarashtra a “bird’s eye view” of the war of Mahabharata. “Yeh live telecast nahi to aur kya hai? [If that is not live telecast, then what is it?),” Sharma asked.
While Sharma’s comments were still evoking reactions, he dropped another bomb shell on Friday.
“People say Sita ji was born from an earthen pot, which means at the time of Ramayana, a concept similar to test tube baby must have existed,” Sharma said during an event on skills development.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani | Source: PTI
Prior to Sharma, Tripura Chief Minister and BJP leader Biplab Deb had made a similar claim saying that the internet and technology existed during the time of the Mahabharata. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, too, had likened Narada Muni to Google.
Earlier this year, a local MLA from Madhya Pradesh Pannalal Shakya said if girls would stop making boyfriends, the atrocities against them would automatically stop. “Why do girls make boyfriends? If they stop doing this, the atrocities against them will stop,” he had said.
The MLA had also advised boys to refrain from embracing the “western culture of making girlfriends.”
The same MLA had also questioned cricketer Virat Kohli’s patriotism as he married actress Anushka Sharma in Italy.
