PM Modi must apologise for Giriraj Singh's racist comment on Sonia

Congress leader and former minister of state for home R.P.N Singh on Wednesday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should publicly apologise for Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Giriraj Singh's racist remark on party president Sonia Gandhi.

R P N Singh said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ministers were habitual of making such outlandish and condemnable comments.

"I strongly condemn the derogatory remarks used by a Union Minister against Smt. Sonia Gandhi. It is not just derogatory to Sonia Gandhi, but to the all women of this country. I think it has become a habit with BJP ministers to make these kinds of outlandish remarks. It is time for the Prime Minister who keeps saying that these kinds of remarks should not be made, but every week we had a remark made by some MP or some minister in the government. We seek apology from the Prime Minister," he told ANI.

"And, I think, Giriraj Singh has been used to making these kinds of statements. And because he is a minister in the government, the Prime Minister must make a statement," he added.

The BJP leader from Bihar landed himself in another political controversy on Wednesday, when he racially targeted the Congress president.

Singh, who was sitting among a group of his supporters in Hajipur, Bihar, 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.