Randhir Kumar Soni, JD(U) MLA from Bihar’s Sheikhpuraha is receiving flak for his response to a migrant worker’s query about why NDA government at the Centre and state level had not generated enough job opportunities.
In the video of the incident, which has since gone viral on social media, the MLA can be heard asking the migrant worker why his “father could not provide him with any job?”
According to a report in The Indian Express, the MLA made this remark on May 22 during his visit to a quarantine centre in Chandi village in Sheikhpura.
In the video, migrant workers can be seen posing questions to the MLA about jobs and infrastructure in the area.
During a meeting with those quarantined at the facility, a migrant worker asks the leader why NDA government at the Centre and state had failed to create adequate jobs. To this, the MLA can be heard saying, “Did your father give you a job?”
The discussion purportedly ended on a heated note and the MLA left the quarantine facility and continued his visit to another centre.
Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav criticised Soni’s statement and called it “insensitive,” according to the IE report. But the Sheikhpurahas MLA has maintained that his comment was not aimed at migrant workers but at a person he has known for many years.
“It is being blown out of proportion”, he was quoted as saying.