Two Haryana ministers in Nehru remark row

Chandigarh, Feb 23 (IANS) A day after a senior Haryana minister stroked a controversy by using objectionable words against the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, another minister Monday joined the issue.

Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma had used a cuss word on Nehru during an anecdote he cited, speaking at an event at Maharishi Dayanand University campus in Rohtak Sunday.

Sharma, senior BJP minister in the Haryana government after Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, apologised for the same, saying: "If my remark has hurt anyone's sentiment, I apologise for that."

Sharma defended himself, saying he did not want to disgrace Nehru but was citing a Haryanvi anecdote in which a cuss word was used.

His cabinet colleague and Haryana Health and Sports Minister Anil Vij Monday had his own take on the controversy over Sharma's remark.

Vij told reporters that wrong words should not be used against anyone. "But Nehru was not a good man," Vij said.

The Congress reacted sharply against Sharma's remarks and protested in Rohtak, Jind and some other places in Haryana.

Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar said the remarks were part of the right-wing party's campaign to humiliate national icons.

Tanwar, while condemning the remark, said that the use of such words by the minister came barely a couple of days after an orientation session of Haryana legislators where they were taught how to conduct themselves in public.