BJP chief Nitin Gadkari was caught in another controversy when he was slammed for an unlikely comparison between Swami Vivekananda and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, saying that their IQ level is almost same.
Trying to explain that gender discrimination is unfair and that people should be judged only on the basis of their qualities, Gadkari said," As per psychology, if we compare the IQ level of Swami Vivekananda and that of Dawood Ibrahim, it could have almost been the same. But Vivekananda used it in nation building, brotherhood and spiritualism while Dawood used that in excelling in the crime world."
However, having been forced to clarify his comments, Gadkari insisted he was trying to show the use of intelligence for good versus evil.
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar stirred controversy by comparing Opposition MPs with animals. Speaking about Parliament deadlock over FDI, Aiyar said, "There is a decent and respectable way to express one's point of view. This behaviour of the MPs reminds me of animals screaming in a well." Here are other cases where politicians fall prey to 'foot-in-mouth' disease
Union Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal came under fire for his sexist remark at a kavi-sammelan. A petition was filed in a Kanpur court against the neta who said, "As time goes by, an old victory or an old wife is no fun." This enraged women in Kanpur who burnt his effigies and blackened his posters. Jaiswal apologized, saying that he was quoted out of context but the damage was already done.
At an event, Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde remarked, "Earlier, Bofors was the talking point, but people forgot about it. Now it is coal. This too will be forgotten. Once coal is washed off your hands, they become clean again," he said with a laugh. It's disturbing that a UPA minister can be so flippant about serious allegations but we guess politicians have just gotten used to getting away with murder all the time. Of course, that certainly doesn't mean you express your dismissal aloud, Mr Shinde!
MNS chief Raj Thackeray threatened to brand people from Bihar as "infiltrators" and force them out of the state, if authorities in Bihar take legal action against Mumbai police in the Azad Maidan case. He also threatened to shut down Hindi channels in Mumbai for misquoting him.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi made headlines over a controversial statement to The Wall Street Journal. Linking the states malnutrition to vegetarianism and figure concious girls, he said, "The middle class is more beauty-conscious than health-conscious. That is a challenge. If a mother tells her daughter to have milk, they'll have a fight - she'll tell her mother, 'I won't drink milk. I'll get fat'."
The Gandhi scion must not be left out of this list. He had said, "It is very difficult to stop any single terrorist attack. 99% of the attacks have been stopped. We must stop 100%." Slow clap, Captain Obvious.
P Chidambaram, who was the home minister when Mumbai was rocked by blasts in July, 2011, had this to say when journalists asked him about why the plot hadn't been detected and stopped. "We had no intelligence inputs in state or central agencies. This cannot be seen as an intelligence failure," said Chidambaram, a comment that alone should invite twenty rotten eggs and tomatoes on his face
Reacting to the 26/11 attacks, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had said, "We, the citizens, should finish off the terrorists. Use whatever weapon you have in your hand and do the job."





