Union minister Nitin Gadkari. (File) Union minister Nitin Gadkari. (File)

Union minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari Saturday said that party workers should fulfill their domestic responsibilities first because those who can not do that “can not manage the country”.

Gadkari was interacting with former workers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), BJP’s student wing at a gathering in Nagpur, news agency PTI reported.

“I meet many people who say we want to devote our lives for the BJP, for the country. I asked (one such person) what do you do, and who all are there in your family. He said I have closed my shop as it was not doing well….there is wife at home, children,” Gadkari said.

“I said (to him) first take care of your home, because one who can not manage his home can not manage the country. Hence first manage your home and look after your children properly, then work for the party and country,” Gadkari added.

Read | People will thrash leaders who show dreams, don’t fulfill: Nitin Gadkari

The comments come days after Gadkari warned that political leaders who sell dreams to people, but fail to make them a reality get “beaten up” by the public.

“Sapne dikhane waale neta logon ko acche lagte hain, par dikhaye hue sapne agar pure nahi kiye to janta unki pitayi bhi karti hai (People like political leaders who show them dreams. But if those dreams are not fulfilled, the people thrash these leaders),” Gadkari had said.

Also read | Leadership must own up to defeat also: Nitin Gadkari

Prior to that, Gadkari, in an apparent reference to the BJP’s defeat in the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh had said that “the leadership should own up to defeat and failures”.

Though he later said that his statements had been “twisted”.

(Inputs from PTI & ENS)

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