After seeming to have emerged relatively unscathed by the Coalgate scam, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal would probably never have dreamed that it was his sense of humour that would land him in trouble!
Attending a poetry summit at Kanpur, Jaiswal was caught on tape saying that there is often little fun left in old wives and old marriages after years.
Has the minister said too much? Screen grab from CNN IBN
“Latest victories and new marrages have something unique about them…As the years pass and the wife becomes older that amount of fun also doesn’t remain in the marriage,” he was recorded as having said in Hindi on stage.
Opposition party activists and womens rights groups quickly latched on to his comment and said that the minister should either apologise or resign over his statement.
However, the minister offered a convoluted defence, saying that the statement had been taken out of context, and had been edited to make it more controversial.
“People are angry because my words were taken out of context. I was at an inauguration ceremony, when I heard India defeated Pakistan in cricket. People were celebrating, so I stopped the ceremony and asked people to celebrate, beacuse it wouldn’t be fun celebrating an old victory, the same way one cannot enjoy wedding celebrations with an old wife,” he said.
