Now BJP Minister Jayant Sinha uses “Ji” for Masood Azhar after Jitan Ram Manjhi’s controversy

This comes a day after former Bihar chief minister and HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi addressed the global terrorist Masood Azhar as Saheb, drawing sharp criticism from BJP.

Union Minister Jayant Sinha Image: PTI

New Delhi: Hours after BJP lashed out at former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi for calling terrorist Masood Azhar as ‘Saheb’, Union Minister Jayant Sinha also courted controversy by addressing Azhar as “Ji” during a road show in Jharkhand, offering the opposition a welcome comeback. amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Jayant Sinha who is contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Jharkhand's Hazaribagh constituency, was extolling the BJP government at the Centre for its effort in getting the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief listed as a terrorist by the UN Security Council, but ended up addressing the terrorist with an honorific respectful “ji”. In what may be termed as a slip of tongue. Sinha was addressing an election rally in Ramgarh district of the state at the time. He said: “This is a huge moment for the national security. The efforts of the government has been successful. Now Masood Azhar Ji has been designated as a global terrorist by the UN.” This comes a day after former Bihar chief minister and HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi addressed the global terrorist Masood Azhar as Saheb, drawing sharp criticism from BJP. Later, Manjhi retracted and termed the remark as "slip of tongue." Manjhi, an important leader of mahagathbandhan in Bihar which comprises Congress and the RJD, made the comment Thursday while replying to mediapersons query on United Nations declaring the Pakistan based terror mastermind Masood Azhar as global terrorist. “PM does branding of everything which is wrong the efforts were on to get Masood Azhar Saheb designated as global terrorist since Manmohan Singh's time but it was just a coincidence that the decision has been taken now. I think that this is not correct for BJP or Narendra Modi to take credit of the issue", Manjhi said. Video of the Manjhi's comment that had gone viral showed him saying that "Had Vajpayee government not taken Masood Azhar Saheb to Kandhar in plane his game was over then only.”