Vijayvargiya slammed for ‘poha’ remark on Bangladeshis

Indore, Jan 24 (IANS) In a bizarre statement on Thursday while speaking at a seminar in Indore, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed labourers who recently carried out construction work at his house could be Bangladeshis as they had “strange” eating habits. And what’s that? Eating only ‘poha’ (flattened rice).

“When a new room was being added at my house recently, I found eating habits of some of the workers ‘strange’ as they were eating only ‘poha’ (flattened rice)”, he said.

To confirm his suspicion, the BJP leader spoke to the supervisor, he claims. He added, “I suspected these workers were residents of Bangladesh. Two days after I became suspicious, they stopped working at my house. I have not filed any police complaint yet. I only mentioned this incident to warn people,” he alleged.

Speaking at the seminar, he connected it to internal security of India. “Whenever I go out, six armed security personnel follow me. What is happening in this country? Will outside people enter and spread so much terror?” Vijayvargiya asked.

Meanwhile, this has sparked off a massive debate on Twitter with many users pointing out consumption of ‘poha’ cannot be an yardstick for someone’s nationality.

Infact, ‘poha’ started to trend on top on the micro blogging site. While few pointed out ‘poha’ is not a staple for Bengalis, be it from either side; others posted photos of them eating poha and asked the BJP general secretary whether it qualifies them as ‘Bangladeshi’. IANS