Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday mocked people’s love for English, referring to the growing use of words like mummy-papa and dad.

“Nowadays, instead of `mata-pita’, the use of mummy-papa has gained currency,” he said during a function where hundreds of school children sang Vande Mataram.

“With our love for English, we call pita `dad’,” he added. “One of my friends lost his father. The friend, with his love for English, told me that his pita has become `dead’ (which sounds closer to `dad’),” Chouhan was quoted by PTI.

“This is a weird distortion that has crept into our thinking,” he said. Talking to reporters later, Chouhan referred to Rajput queen Padmavati as “Rajmata” and said great personalities who laid down their lives for the country should always be respected.

Contrary to his criticism for English education, Chouhan is quite liberal when it comes to his own children’s education. His elder Kartikey studied in Pathways World School Gurgaon, which is one of the most expensive English medium private schools in India, while the younger son Kunal is studying at a posh college in New York in the US. Kartikey is currently pursuing a law degree in Pune’s Symbiosis Law School.

Shivraj was widely mocked by his adversaries when, on his visit to America, he said that the Madhya Pradesh were better than the US.