Yashomati Thakur, the Congress leader who is also the Minister of Women and Child Development in Maharashtra, was schooled by Union minister Smriti Irani after she implied that Nagaland is not a part of India.
While addressing the Zonal Conference of States and Union Territories and stakeholders of the Western region in Mumbai on Tuesday (April 12), Yashomati Thakur talked about deportation to and from Nagaland, and the union minister had to interject and correct the Maharashtra cabinet Minister that Nagaland is a part of India and there is no deportation within Indian states.
The snippet of the Mumbai event where Yashomati Thakur was seen making ill-informed remarks was shared by a Twitter user Vikas Pandey (@MODIfiedvikas).
This CONgress minister needs geography lessons, she thinks Nagaland and Bengal are in a different country. She is Yashomati Chandrakant Thakur (Sonawane), Minister Women and Child Development Department, Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/12BU3eqwje
— Vikas Pandey (@MODIfiedVikas) April 12, 2022
In the video, the Congress leader Yashomati Thakur is heard saying, “With some states and countries we do have an MoU but with the others, especially, children coming from Nagaland…woman coming from Nagaland…they…”, before the Congress leader completed her sentence, Union Minister Smriti Irani interjected to remind her that Nagaland is very much part of the country.
Yashomati Thakur, for a second, rectified her statement by replacing ‘Nagaland’ with ‘Thailand’, but again she quickly went on to justify her statement by saying, “It is our own country I understand, but there are children coming to the states and again ‘deported’ to the states without any notification. So Nagaland is also one of the states from where children come over here and we ‘deport’ them without any notification as we do not have an MoU within the states also”.
Here again, Union Minister Smriti Irani educated the Congress minister saying that within a country, nomenclatures like deportation are not used. The Congress leader tried to cut short the union minister to give an explanation, but Smriti Irani told her that she should be mindful that Nagaland is a part of India and secondly no one can be deported within India.
“You should be mindful of your words…this is my humble request”, said the union minister in a curt reply to Maharashtra’s Minister of Women and Child Development.
The Congress minister, sounding least embarrassed by the gross mistake she made while delivering her speech went on to say that it was a “small mistake” she had made while conveying her message.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Smriti Irani had taken to Twitter to share pictures from the event held in Mumbai. “Had fruitful deliberations on Mission Shakti, Vatsalya, and Poshan 2.0 with representatives of state governments and stakeholders at West Zone Consultation Meeting held in Mumbai today”, she tweeted.
Had fruitful deliberations on Mission Shakti, Vatsalya and Poshan 2.0 with representatives of state governments and stakeholders at West Zone Consultation Meeting held in Mumbai today. pic.twitter.com/diQ6E453ap
— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) April 12, 2022
Notably, the Ministry of Women and Child Development had initiated a series of Zonal Consultations with State Govts and Stakeholders in each region of the country to ensure the optimum impact of its recently launched 3 missions – POSHAN 2.0, Vatsalya, and Shakti. The event at which the Minister of Women and Child Development in Maharashtra spoke was part of this series of Zonal meetings with the State Govts and Stakeholders. The first such meeting was held in Chandigarh on 2nd April, the second in Bengaluru on 4th April, the third in Guwahati on 10th April, and the fourth in Mumbai on 12th April 2022. The last meeting in this series is scheduled to be held in Bhubaneswar on 13th April 2022.
