Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) must avoid making controversial public statements, said party president Amit Shah on Tuesday. He reiterated that the party has always disassociated itself from such remarks.
"We have said this many times. Such things should be avoided, the party has disassociated themselves from their statements," Shah said referring to statements made in the recent past by party leaders like Sakshi Maharaj and Giriraj Singh.
He was addressing the media on the first anniversary of the second NDA Government, which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It maybe recalled that Sakshi Maharaj had said that a Hindu woman must produce at least four children in order to protect the future of Hindu religion and had also described Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse as a 'patriot'.
Giriraj Singh faced wide spread condemnation for his racist remark on Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi while on a visit to Bihar earlier this year.
"If Rajiv Gandhi had married a Nigerian or if she (Sonia) wasn't white skinned, would Congress accept her as a leader?" the BJP MP from Bihar had told his supporters during a meeting in Hajipur.