Madhya Pradesh minister unaware of Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi
Mr Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo in Norway
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh minister Kusum Mehdale Monday said she was unaware of Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, days after she mistakenly congratulated fellow minister Kailash Vijayvargiya for the Nobel win.
“I admit that though I was a minister for women and child development department twice, first in the then BJP Chief Minister Sunde-rlal Patwa’s government and later during Uma Bharti’s regime, I never got an opportunity to meet mr Satyarthi and I am even not aware of him,” the minister told reporters.
Ms Mehdale was responding to a query on the faux pas committed recently by her and other party MLAs, who mistakenly congratulated Madhya Pradesh urb-an development minister Kailash Vijaywargiya for receiving the Nobel instead of Kailash Satyarthi when scribes approached them for a comment on the honour bestowed to the crusader against child labour.
On December 10, Mr Satyarthi jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo in Norway along with Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai.
While the world lauded the Madhya Pradesh activist, people back in his home state hardly knew him before the global recognition.
Ms Mehdale currently holds charge of six departments animal husbandry, public health engineering, horticulture and food processing, fisheries development, cottage and rural industries and law and legislative affairs in the Shivraj Singhled government.