Giriraj Singh must question his 'parochial' belief: Kiran Bedi

Former IPS officer and BJP leader Kiran Bedi on Wednesday said that Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Giriraj Singh needs to question his parochial belief.

"He has to question his parochial belief. Even if he has regretted, he knows the statement will go public, is he not afraid? This is not about the man. This is about the mind; it could be a women's mind or a man's," Bedi said while commenting on Giriraj Singh's 'white skinned' remark on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

"Even if his mind has grown in this belief, he is a part of leadership and yet if he doesn't understand that social responsibilities change he must question his mindset," she added.

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Earlier in the day, the BJP MP from Bihar had said that his comment on Sonia Gandhi was made 'off the record' and added that it was being presented by the media in a different light.

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"The things that are being shown by the media were something that was said was off the record. People say many kinds of things at home or outside. The way it was presented is a different issue. But If I have hurt anyone's sentiments including Sonia ji and Rahul ji, I regret what I said," he told ANI.

Singh, who was sitting among a group of his supporters in Hajipur in Bihar, had jocularly asked whether Sonia's "white skin" had been her ticket to securing the top job in the Congress Party.

Stoking the controversy further, he further queried, "If Rajiv (Gandhi) had married a Nigerian, things would have been different.