Nitish Kumar’s derogatory remark: ” You are a woman, what do you know about budget?” Explained

Union Budget 2024 released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 23rd of July in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Nitish Kumar, the current Chief Minister of Bihar in a heated debate while he was presenting in assembly made a very derogatory comment towards a RJD MLA.

Nitish Kumar’s Statement

“You’re a woman, you don’t know anything” after his statement the protest became louder and he blamed the opposition by saying how can you call such things on me, what have you (opposition) done for women. We are going to speak, if you are not listening, it’s your fault. All of this raged the opposition into shouting more. He also added that only since 2005, women got rights to speak and express their thoughts because of the efforts of NDA.

Opposition’s Response

RJD chief and the former Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav have posted on X criticizing Nitish Kumar. He said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has developed a habit of making cheap, unwanted, uncivilized and rude comments on women. He proclaimed this to be a very serious and worrying issue for the women of the state as well as the state itself.

He added that this is not the first time he’s making such comments. He had also commented on BJP MLA about her appearance of the tribal community, he also mentioned that his recent comment is on Rekha Paswan who is a two-time Schedule Caste woman MLA.

Leader of Opposition Rabri Devi has condemned Nitish Kumar’s behavior as an indication for lack of respect for women, asserting that his comments were an outright insult to women in the assembly and particularly to Dalit Legislators. Devi remarked that Kumar’s outburst demonstrated his inability to control his temper and his disregard for women’s dignity.

Although the JDU members have defended Nitish Kumar by saying that his comment should be viewed in a full context rather than taken out of context only for some political gain.

Past Chaos

Nitish Kumar have been in highlights because of his previous comments about women’s education and her role in increasing population. He described how an educated woman can influence her husband’s behavior during sexual intercourse, which was labelled as ‘derogatory and vulgar’ by critics, including the BJP and National Commission for Women (NCW).

Following the criticism Nitish Kumar apologized by issuing statement that if his word hurt anyone’s feeling, I take them back and I apologize for that. But Nitish’s current allies BJP, at that time asked for Nitish Kumar’s resignation even after the apology as they consider it a misogynistic comment which indicate towards a broader issue with his views on Women Empowerment. This comment brought a lot of criticism for Nitish Kumar not only from political opponents but also from various women’s right advocates asking for accountability in his statements and actions regarding women’s issues.