Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Madhya Pradesh tribal affairs minister Kunwar Vijay Shah has insulted senior Army officer Colonel Sofia Qureshi by alleging that she has ties to terrorist groups.
On Tuesday, May 13, while referring to the Pahalgam attack, the BJP minister said, “Those who widowed our daughters, we sent a sister of their own [Col. Sofia Qureshi] to teach them a lesson.”
In a video of him speaking at a government function near Mhow, the BJP minister remarked that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have used the same tactics as the terrorists, by demanding that the victims show physical proof they were not Muslims.
“Now, Modi ji could not have done the same. So he sent a sister from their society, so that if you widowed our sisters, a sister of yours will come and undress you. And he [Modi] had said India will strike them in their own home,” Shah said, followed by applause from the audience.
Shah’s comments on the senior Army officer sparked controversy, with many calling his statements an insult to women and the armed forces.
The Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Abbas Hafiz called the BJP leader had crossed all limits. “The statement on Col. Sofia Qureshi by minister Vijay Shah is offensive and has crossed all limits of communalism. The Congress demands that he be sacked immediately. He is a habitual offender of speaking against women,” Abbas said.
Later, Shah stated that his statements were taken in the wrong context. “Some people are taking my statement in a different context. I did not mean it that way. She (Col. Qureshi) is my sister and she has avenged the acts of the terrorists,” he said.
Colonel Sofia Qureshi, along with Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian Air Force, briefed the media and the international community about Operation Sindoor, launched on April 7 as India’s response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Qureshi has a distinguished military career with many firsts to herself. In 2016, she became the first Indian woman to lead an all-male contingent in a multinational military exercise.
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