Navjot Singh Sidhu gets clean chit over ‘dulhan’ remark against PM Modi

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday was given a clean chit by the district election office in Indore over his ‘dulhan’ (bride) remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The office said the comment did not violate the model code of conduct.

The remark

Campaigning in Indore over the weekend, Sidhu compared the Prime Minister to a bride who only pretends to work. Speaking on May 11, he said in Hindi that Modi was like a bride who makes few rotis but jangles her bangles loudly so the neighbours think she is busy, and that this was what had happened under the Modi government.

The clean chit came soon after the former cricketer was served an Election Commission notice for a separate harsh remark about Modi which it said breached the code.

BJP reaction

The BJP called Sidhu a misogynist. Party spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference in Delhi that in the new India women did not exist only to make bread at home but carried the country forward. Patra also recalled an earlier remark by Sidhu about Michelle Obama and the White House kitchen, saying Sidhu appeared to think even she was there only to make bread.

Following the ‘dulhan’ remark, Sidhu, one of the Congress’s star campaigners, also described BJP leaders as ‘Black Englishmen’, in a reference to India’s colonial past, and compared Patra to a frog who only pretended to care about women’s rights.

See also: Indian National Congress and political leaders.

Originally published on 16 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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