People die in ration queues too, says BJP leader

Bhopal: BJP national vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe’s “insensitive” remarks on the recent death of a retired employee while standing in queue to exchange the demonetised notes on Monday kicked up a row.

Mr Sahasrabuddhe, who is also in-charge of Madhya Pradesh unit of BJP, appeared to have lost his cool while replying to a question by the reporters who sought his reaction on the death of a retired BSNL employee in Sagar district a couple of days ago while standing in a queue in a bank to exchange the old notes.

Sixty two-year-old Vinod Pandey died of cardiac arrest while waiting for his turn to exchange his old notes in a local bank in Sagar on Saturday.

“People may die even when they stand in a queue in a ration shop”, the saffron leader commented.

He however hastened to add that steps were being taken to ensure that such unfortunate incident did not recur. Talking to reporters here, he said the Centre has waged a war against black money. People should bear some inconvenience caused in the process.

Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi however slammed the BJP for his “insensitive” remarks on the death of a senior citizen, who has fallen victim to the demonetisation crisis.“It demonstrates his apathy for the plight of people. His remarks were highly reprehensible”, he added.