Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP chief and Lok Sabha MP Nalin Kumar Kateel triggered a controversy Monday with his remark that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was not getting married as he cannot have children. He also said that senior opposition leaders believed getting vaccinated would lead to “impotence”.
Kateel can be heard making the comments in a video clip that has gone viral.
“Siddaramanna (former CM and Congress leader Siddaramaiah) and Rahul Gandhi had said don’t take the (Covid-19) vaccine as you cannot have children,” he is heard saying. “But in the night (in secret), took the vaccine. Day before our MLC Manjunath said that this is the reason Rahul Gandhi is not getting married as he cannot have children.”
Kateel’s comments have drawn criticism from the Congress, the principal opposition party in the poll-bound state, and even caught BJP leaders by surprise.
“Going by the statements made by @nalinkateel, it looks like he really has serious mental issues & his disease of low intellect is spreading to his entire party. Get well soon BJP,” Priyank Kharge, Congress legislator and head of the party’s communications wing wrote on Twitter.
According to a Twitter post by news agency ANI, Karnataka Health & Family Welfare Minister K. Sudhakar was quoted as saying that he didn’t want to support the comment.
“I don’t know in what context our president has made that remark but I’d like to keep myself away from this comment and I don’t want to support this comment,” he added.
This isn’t the first time Kateel has made such remarks.
In January, Kateel had asked his party workers not to “speak on small issues like roads or sewage but on love jihad”.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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