A day after Rahul Gandhi said BJP MPs step back on seeing him as they fear he might hug them, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey today took a jibe, saying the leaders may be divorced by their wives if they embrace the Congress president as “Section 377 hasn’t been scrapped as yet”.
Nishikant Dubey drew a lot of criticism for his apparent homophobic and sexist comment while criticising Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday.
“Why should we hug him. Section 377 hasn’t been scrapped as yet. And our wives will also give divorce to us. If Rahul Gandhi gets married, then we will hug him,” he was quoted as saying. The IPC’s Section 377 criminalises sex among people of the same gender.
On July 19, after his speech in the Lok Sabha during the no-confidence motion debate, Gandhi had walked up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hugged him. While the moment set off hundreds of memes on social media and gave netizens an opportunity to embrace humour, newspapers across the country splashed the picture of the hug across their front pages, to commentary ranging from “Rahul Gandhi creates flutter” to “theatrics and drama”.
Yesterday, at an event, Gandhi said the BJP’s MPs take “two steps back” on seeing him fearing he may embrace them.
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