Rampur: Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Azam Khan on Sunday muddied the political waters by raving about a ‘khaki’ underwear while ranting about his rival Jaya Prada and former colleague. The rant went somewhat like this, as per an NDTV report. “Many allegations were made against me by the current BJP candidate (Prada). I had to swear by my dead mother that they are false. I am not a coward. If I had said it, I would have accepted it in front of you. I want to ask you, should one stoop so low in politics? This person who has sucked the blood of Rampur for 10 years — I had chaperoned that person to Rampur, leading her by the finger. I familiarised the person with the streets of Rampur.
I didn’t let anyone touch the person or even use filthy language. You made the person your representative for 10 years. But the difference between us, O people of Rampur, O people of Shahbad, O people of India, is that you took 17 years to recognise the person, and I realised in just 17 days that the underwear the person wears is khaki,” the Samajwadi Party leader said at a rally in Rampur, in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav. Khan has been sparring with Prada ever since she joined the BJP. She had won from Rampur on a Samajwadi Party ticket in the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections, but was shunted out in 2010 over allegations of anti-party activities. She had at that time aligned herself with Amar Singh, who had fallen out with Mulayam.
Firoz Khan, another Samajwadi Party leader, had also made misogynistic remarks against her in a video that emerged recently. It allegedly showed him as saying that Jaya Prada would enthral the people of Rampur with “ghungaroos and thumkas”, and the evenings in Rampur “will become colourful” this election season. Prada broke down at a public rally last week, saying that Azam Khan has also derisively referred to her by a similar term (‘Nachnewali’).
Khaki is identified as the colour of the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP. BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan condemned Khan’s comments. “This is simply disgusting and embarrassing. The level of politics cannot fall any further. This is the real face of Azam Khan and his so-called socialist party, wherein women are put down in this manner. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati should also comment on such disgusting comments being made against Prada,” he said.
