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‘Utterly pitiable’: RJD, Congress question Nitish Kumar's mental health after Bihar CM removes Muslim woman's niqab
A video purportedly of the incident was shared by X handles of both the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Bihar Congress
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar faced serious questions after he stoked a row on Monday as a video showing him pulling the niqab (veil) of a Muslim AYUSH doctor off her face at an event surfaced. The opposition parties expressed “pity” at the JD(U) leader's mental health, and also commented if he was influenced by the RSS-BJP.
The video, the authenticity of which HT has not independently verified, was shared by the X handles of both the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Bihar Congress.
“What has happened to Nitish ji? His mental state has now reached an utterly pitiable condition, or has Nitish Babu become 100% Sanghi now?” RJD wrote on X while sharing the purported video.
The Bihar Congress has demanded Kumar's resignation over the alleged action.
While some media reports and even the opposition state that the CM pulled down the woman's “hijab”, the video shows him pulling down the niqab. A hijab is a headscarf, while a niqab is the veil worn over the face, often in conjunction with the hijab.
“This is Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Pulling a woman's hijab while handing her an appointment letter — this is extremely shameful and reprehensible. When the head of the state does such an act openly, what confidence can there be in the safety of women? Nitish Kumar should immediately resign for this vile act,” the party’s state unit wrote on X.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and JKPDP chief Mehboob Mufti also slammed Kumar over the move and said she was “shocked” and wondered if it was time for him to “step down”.
“Having personally known & admired Nitish ji I was shocked to see him pull down a young Muslim woman’s naqaab. Does one attribute it to old age or the normalisation of humiliating Muslims publicly. The fact that people around him watched this horrific incident unfold as some form of an entertainment is even more unsettling. Nitish Sahab perhaps it’s time you step down?” she wrote in a post on X and also shared a video of the incident.
The JD(U) and its NDA alliance partner BJP are yet to react to the alleged incident.
The alleged Nitish Kumar niqab row
The incident took place at ‘Samvad’, the CM's secretariat in Patna, where appointment letters were given away to more than 1,000 AYUSH doctors, PTI reported.
According to the CMO quoted in the report, the appointees included 685 Ayurveda doctors, 393 homoeopaths, and 205 practitioners of the Unani system of medicine.
Ten of the appointees received job letters from CM Nitish Kumar, while the rest received them online.
When it was this woman's turn, who had arrived wearing a niqab over her face, the 75-year-old CM frowned and exclaimed, "What is this?"
From a raised platform, he then bent down and pulled the niqab down, the report added.
The flustered appointee was, thereafter, hastily pulled aside by an official present on the occasion, while deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of the BJP was seen tugging Nitish Kumar's sleeve in an apparent bid to restrain him.
