On Tuesday, the Opposition in Bihar panned their state’s chief executive, Nitish Kumar, for what they saw as obscene words he allegedly made when discussing his plans to increase female education and its relationship to birth control in the state legislature.
Nitish triggered a two-hour conversation over the government’s socioeconomic research with his remark, “If a woman receives education and marries, her husband will inevitably do it with her every night, resulting in more children. Alternatively, if a man gets an education and marries a woman with a limitation, he will not have any children. Be sure to get her the education she needs to have children; the birth rate is falling, and men are more likely to have children with educated women. A little later, he made identical remarks before the legislature.
In response to a remark made by BJP MLA Nand Kishore Yadav in the assembly that just 7% of Bihar’s population had finished high school, the chief minister made the above statement. It should be okay when none of your job advertising gets any responses, Yadav added.
After the House session ended for the day, the BJP demanded that Nitish provide a public apology to women. The National Commission for Women (NCW) has ordered an “immediate and unequivocal apology” for statements that “are not only regressive but also egregiously insensitive to women’s rights and choices.”
Nitish’s views on sexual education were met with criticism, but Bihar’s deputy chief minister, Tejashwi Yadav, soon jumped in to support him.
In an interview with ThePrint, BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur said, “The CM should issue a public apology to women for his remarks inside the assembly.” The CM’s out-of-character comments show that he’s losing it. He even supplied several wrong dates throughout his remarks.
Nitish’s language has been deemed improper in the past. In 2020, he lost his temper with BJP MLA Nikki Hembrom after she questioned his government’s efficiency during an NDA meeting. He supposedly said, “You are adorable, but have some wisdom too” (Badi khoobsurat lagti ho, kuch gyan rakho). The BJP leadership had heard Hembrom’s criticisms but was trying to keep Nitish pleased.
In 2021, when BJP leaders were looking for a law to limit population increase, Nitish stated that there was no need for a law since the solution was to educate women. A minister who wanted not to be named said, “But he could have avoided the words he used today.”
‘As head of the NCW, I am calling on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to issue an urgent and unqualified apology to every woman in the country,’ she said.
“His crass remarks in the Vidhan Sabha are an affront to the dignity and respect that every woman deserves,” she said on X.
Sharma called the “derogatory and cheap language used during his speech” a “dark stain on our society” by Sharma.
What must happen to a nation when its leader openly proclaims such sentiments in a democracy is beyond comprehension. We condemn this conduct and want those involved to be held accountable,” she stated.
