Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who came under fire for pulling up a collector in Telangana’s Zaheerabad, on Saturday defended herself stating that she never used unparliamentary language against the collector.
“Please point out if there was anything unparliamentary in the way I questioned that public representative. I have every business to ask and seek an answer. I am not here to judge the conduct of the collector. A minister has every right to say… I never used any unparliamentary language against the collector,” she said.
A massive political row erupted over the incident that took place on Friday in Zaheerabad Parliamentary Constituency where Sitharaman pulled up the local Collector of Kamareddy district for not being able to provide her with an answer to what the Centre and the State’s share of the rice supplied through fair price shops was and also pulled up the district collector – Jitesh Patil over missing PM Modi pictures at a local shop.
The Union Minister asked Jitesh Patil as to why the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was missing at the shop in Birkur. On the fair price prices, she said the Centre bears a lion’s share in the subsidised rice which is being sold to beneficiaries in the State at the rate of Re 1 kg.
Sitharaman was attending various programmes in the Zaheerabad Parliamentary Constituency as part of BJP’s ‘Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana’ on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Saturday hit out at the Union Minister, saying such “melodrama” from her to remain in the PM’s “good books” was highly unbecoming.
Tagging a tweet by Sitharaman’s Office that had also posted a video of her interaction with the official, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said,
“National Food Security Act was enacted by Dr. Manmohan Singh’s Govt in Sept 2013. There was no expectation that photographs of political leaders will be used to claim credit.” “Such melodrama from Finance Minister to remain in the good books of Prime Minister is highly unbecoming!” he said.
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