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Anand Vardhan

Chowdhury’s ‘rashtrapatni’ remark: Why politicians should be careful with wordplay

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Atal Bihari Vajpayee HD Deve Gowda Lok Sabha Mani Shankar Aiyar Sonia Gandhi

On April 21, 1997, in his reply to a motion of confidence debate in the Lok Sabha, prime minister HD Deve Gowda expressed anguish over being called “nikamma” by then Congress president Sitaram Kesari.

Trying to excuse his party president, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar downplayed it as an “act of solecism”. One isn’t sure how many bought that explanation. It was tough to do so – as a Hindi heartland native, Kesari could not cite an ignorance of Hindi semantics.

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