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Congress MP responds to objection of Bihar's Minta Devi: ‘Why do we need her permission?’
Lok Sabha MP Imran Masood responded after Minta Devi asked who “gave the Congress leaders the right” to wear t-shirts featuring her picture.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Imran Masood defended the Opposition’s use of Minta Devi’s photo in Bihar’s SIR row, saying her permission was not required since the information came from Election Commission records.
He added that the woman is being “oppressed” and that the Congress party stands against it.
“Why do we need her permission? We took her name from the records of the Election Commission. According to the Election Commission records, her age is listed as 124 years, and I have the record. Where does the need for her permission come in?,” Masood told news agency PTI.
“If she goes to vote tomorrow, people will ask her how she has become 124 years old. This has nothing to do with her personally. She is being oppressed, and we are standing against that oppression,” the Congress leader added.
Masood responded after Minta Devi expressed her anger at the Congress leaders, asking who “gave them the right” to wear t-shirts bearing her picture.
Senior Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi and Gaurav Gogoi, were seen wearing t-shirts featuring Minta Devi’s picture and name on the front, with ‘124 Not Out’ written on the back, inside the Parliament premises on Tuesday.
The leaders alleged that the woman had been registered as a 124-year-old voter, making her nine years older than the oldest person in the world.
“Who are they (Opposition MPs) to me? Who is Priyanka Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi to me? Who gave them the right to wear t-shirts featuring me?” Minta Devi told the news agency ANI.
However, she also acknowledged discrepancies in her voter details and demanded corrections. According to her Aadhar card, her date of birth is July 15, 1990, and she criticised her registration as a 124-year-old.
Minta Devi, a resident of Bihar’s Siwan district, was one of the voters highlighted in Rahul Gandhi’s presentation on alleged voter fraud. He had claimed that she was listed as 124 years old in the Election Commission’s draft voter list recently released.
