India: Congress spokesman sacked for nasty word against minister

The Congress on Tuesday sacked its spokesman MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi from the panel of party spokespersons for purportedly using a cuss word against ally Nationalist Congress Party chief and Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.

A camera crew stealthily caught Chaturvedi using the expression which, while used almost as a punctuation mark in north India, has not become part of the political lexicon yet. NCP leaders were furious when they saw footage of Chaturvedi candidly expressing his views on the performance of agriculture and food ministries under Pawar and the kind of problems they have been causing to the ruling Congress.

Civil aviation minister and Pawar confidante Praful Patel immediately lodged a strong protest against the "base" language used by Chaturvedi, demanding strong action against him. The decision to drop Chaturvedi was taken after a review of the footage convinced party leaders that it was the minimum that they needed to do to mollify the angry alliance partner.

After his gaffe on Tuesday, Rajya Sabha member Satyavrat Chaturvedi will continue to look after various party cells and departments. The MP apparently did not realise that the camera was rolling when he engaged in some plainspeak about Pawar's performance.

The party MP from Madhya Pradesh is known for his colourful expressions. On an earlier occasion, he had angered Amar Singh with the advice that the expelled SP leader needed to see a psychiatrist.

Chaturvedi's views on Pawar's performance are shared by many in Congress and had even found vocal expression in the last meeting of the Congress Working Committee on price rise. But the party had avoided going public with it.

- Asian Tribune -