Union Minister and BJP leader Savitri Thakur failed to correctly write 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' in Hindi on a whiteboard during her visit to a school in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district from where she won the Lok Sabha elections. The incident happened on camera and a video of her scribbling the incorrect spelling has gone viral on social media.
Instead of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao', Thakur managed to write 'Beti Padao Bachav'.
According to Savitri Thakur's election affidavit, she studied till Class 12.
The event was organised under the 'School Chalo Abhiyan' on Tuesday (June 18) at a government school in Dhar. Thakur, who is the Union Minister of State for Women and Child development, was the chief guest at the programme.
The incident has led to an exchange of words between the Congress and the BJP. Reacting to the viral video, senior Congress leader KK Mishra called it a "misfortune of democracy" that people with constitutional posts cannot write even in their "mother tongue".
"How can they be capable of running their ministry?" he was quoted as asking by news agency PTI.
The Congress leader further stated that the Constitution should be amended to fix the minimum educational qualification of candidates in the elections.
"On the one hand, the country's citizens are being claimed to be literate, while on the other hand, there is lack of literacy among the responsible people. So what is the truth? This is an issue related to the system and not to any individual," KK Mishra, media advisor to MP Congress president Jitu Patwari, said.
BJP's Dhar President Manoj Somani, slammed the Congress and said their furore over the viral video is a result of their "petty and anti-tribal thinking".
"Savitri Ji's feelings and her sentiments are pure. Congressmen are unable to keep their sentiments pure. The tribal community will not forgive the insult of a tribal woman," Somai added.
He said that Savitri Thakur's mistake happened due to haste and excitement at the school event, and that Congress was unable to digest the "growing stature of an innocent, tribal woman".
Madhya Pradesh Assembly's Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Umang Singhar, a tribal leader from Dhar himself, also took a dig at Savitri Thakur over the viral video.
"What kind of leadership is this? Does Prime Minister Narendra Modi want only rubber stamp ministers in his government? There is no set standard for how a public representative should be, but at least it should be literate," he wrote on X.
