BJP minister's 'maharani' retort to Sonia's 'shahenshah' jibe

New Delhi, May 31: Reacting to Congress President Sonia Gandhi's 'shahenshah' jibe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday launched a counter-attack, saying there was "no place for any maharani too in a democracy".

"I heard and saw on news channels what Sonia Gandhi said about our prime minister. She said this in context of cases pertaining to her son-in-law Robert Vadra. But in a democratic country, a daughter-in-law of a big family too cannot behave like a maharani (empress)," Singh said at a press conference held to showcase his ministry's achievements in the last two years.

The minister, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, also mocked at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for "staging nautanki" by visiting poor people's houses.

"We are living in a time when a leader with a humble background visiting houses of poor people and staying with them does not make news; but the moment a big man does such thing by staging a "nautanki (drama)...," he said.

Earlier, talking to reporters in her parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli on Tuesday, the Congress president trained her guns on Modi and said he was a prime minister and not an emperor.

"Woh pradhanmantri hain, koi shehenshaah nahin ki janata unki saari baatein maane (he is a prime minister and not an emperor that people should be forced to abide by all his diktats)," Gandhi said.

IANS