Just a day after it was revealed that a hardline Shiv Sena lawmaker had forced a Muslim worker to break his Ramazan fast, another controversy has sparked in India after Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader K Laxman called Indian tennis star Sania Mirza the “daughter-in-law of Pakistan” and questioned her credentials to be appointed as the brand ambassador of India’s new state Telangana, Indian media reported.
The Congress termed the statement against the popular sportswoman as “bizarre”.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government had decided to appoint Sania Mirza as ambassador of the newly-created state.
Elaborating on his statement to reporters, Laxman, who is the leader of the BJP in the Telangana legislative assembly, said Sania was born in Maharashtra and settled in Hyderabad only later, therefore, he said, she was a non-local. He labelled her as the “daughter-in-law” of Pakistan referring to the fact that she was married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.
The BJP leader also said that the 27-year-old had never rallied for a separate state.
Laxman accused the government of taking the step with an eye on the minority community votes in the upcoming elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.