New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is facing intense criticism over his extremely derogatory remarks on women and their role in population control.

A big leader of the INDI alliance, ‘Ghamandiya Gathbandhan,’ used indecent language for women

The PM, while addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna, also slammed the INDIA alliance leaders for maintaining a stoic silence on the issue and not condemning Kumar’s distasteful remarks.

Without directly naming Nitish, PM Modi said, “A big leader of the INDI alliance, ‘Ghamandiya Gathbandhan,’ used indecent language for women inside the Assembly yesterday. They are not ashamed. No leader of the INDI alliance said a single word against it. People who think like this about women, can they do anything good for you?…”

PM Modi’s party- BJP also escalated its attack on the Bihar CM, saying his ”apology is not enough.” While hundreds of BJP Women Wing workers staged a demonstration in Bihar’s capital Patna and burned his effigy, bedlam broke at the Bihar Assembly during the ongoing Winter Session over the issue. The Opposition members rushed to the well raising slogans against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his objectionable remarks on birth control the day before.

Earlier this morning, Nitish Kumar apologised for his remarks in the State assembly on the role of women in population growth. “I apologise and I take back my words…,” Kumar said to reporters after BJP legislators did not allow him to enter the legislative assembly. Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, the Bihar Chief Minster on Tuesday said that women should be educated as it would enable them to avoid sexual intercourse from resulting in pregnancy.

Addressing the Winter Session of the Assembly during a debate on caste census yesterday, the Chief Minister made the remarks while underlining the need for girls’ education to check population growth. In a video, the Bihar CM was heard saying that the state’s fertility rate, which was earlier at 4.3 per cent, has dropped to 2.9 per cent, as per a report last year.

“If my words were wrong, then I apologise for that. If anyone got hurt by my words, I take them back,” Kumar said today while talking to reporters today.

Slamming CM Nitish Kumar, Union Minister Nityanand Rai said he has lost his “mental balance”. Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, the Union Minister said, “His remarks were highly objectionable. Only a person, who has lost his mental bearings, can use such crass words against women. He is no longer worthy of holding the CM’s office. he has lowered the country’s image by sullying its culture. He should extend an unqualified apology and retire from politics.”