New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Tourism and Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma, who recently stoked several controversies, has been ticked off by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and asked to keep a low profile, a report said on Saturday.
Mahesh Sharma, a BJP MP from Noida, recently sparked off a huge political row with his various comments, such as girls wanting a night out is unacceptable in India and late president APJ Abdul Kalam was a great nationalist "despite" being a Muslim.
A report published in The Times of India said the BJP has categorically conveyed to the Union Minister not to make unwanted comments and also told him stay away from adverse limelight.
The advisory to Sharma comes as the government was of the view that the Union Minister's statements were reflecting government's stand and also being viewed as RSS-dictated mandate.
Earlier this month, the Union Minister, in an interview, had said lessons from 'Mahabharata', 'Ramayana' and 'Gita' may soon be taught in schools and colleges as part of the NDA government's plan to free the country of "cultural pollution" and inculcate "values" among young minds.
In a controversial statement, Sharma claimed that religious texts like the Bible and the Quran were not central to India's soul.
In the backdrop of Maharashtra prohibiting meat in Mumbai for the Jain festival of fasting, Sharma had told a news channel, "If the sacrifices of a few help maintain the religious sentiments of a section of society, there is no harm in doing this". Sharma also said that the Centre will decide on extending meat ban to nine days of Navratri festival. He said, "It will be a political decision. We would want that".
He also pitched for Hindi be made compulsory in all schools. The BJP leader was also of the view that putting parents in old age home and having narcotics were examples of western culture.
The BJP leader has maintained that his statements in many contexts were selectively quoted and disagreed with the reports saying that his government was trying to drive a saffron agenda in its governance.
