Paras Chandra Jain, energy minister of Madhya Pradesh, is himself a married man
The secret to a successful career in politics is to stay single, a minister in Madhya Pradesh has said. Paras Chandra Jain, the Energy Minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government, also said that "only those people who are unmarried should be made legislators and ministers".
The minister, who interestingly is married, is seen on video making the remarks at an event in Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa, around 250 kilometres from state capital Bhopal. Explaining why unmarried people had a better chance at being successful in politics, Mr Jain said that once people got married, they started worrying about family.
"Then the family grows in size. Then they start worrying about weddings," he said, as he laughed away. "But those who have nothing to worry about, they only worry about
Bharat," he said.
"
Yeh mera mann ki baat hai (this is my inner voice)," the minister added.
Mr Jain then went on to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lives alone. "If someone has done work to increase respect of our country abroad, it is the Prime Minister of our country, Narendra Modi," he said. The minister is also the in-charge of Khandwa city.
Paras Chandra Jain is
facing allegations of illegally favouring a firm owned by his family. Infinit Energy Solutions was given contracts worth crores to install rooftop solar panels in the state's Ujjain division, allegedly in contravention of rules. The firm is owned by the minister's daughter Swati Jain and daughter-in-law Puja Jain.
He has denied the allegations, saying his daughter and daughter-in-law formed the company when he was the state's education minister. "Running a business is not a crime... They never got all the tenders," the minister said.
The firm was allegedly empanelled with the Madhya Pradesh Paschim Kshetra Vidyut Vitran Company Limited in 2016 to install rooftop solar panels in Indore division. A tender for the project, floated by the state government in June 2016, was cancelled allegedly to help the firm get the contract.