‘Aloo and tamatar’: Imran Khan continues to put his foot in his mouth

File image of Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan. AP

Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday stirred a fresh controversy when he said  he did not join politics to check the prices of ‘aloo and tamatar’ (potatoes and tomatoes) but ‘for the sake of the country’s youth’.

Imran made the remarks while attacked the Opposition parties for tabling a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament. Imran is accused of mismanaging the Pakistan economy amidst spiralling inflation.

The leader of the Opposition, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, retorted that Imran had not become prime minister to fix the prices of staple foods, but to ‘ruin the country and the people’, adding that his work had been completed so it was time for him to ‘go home’.

This back and forth comes in the wake of Pakistan’s general inflation, measured in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), being at a 24-month high of 13 per cent. Prices of almost all items are increasing.

According to the Dawn, this is the highest CPI inflation since January, 2020, when it was 14.6 percent.

This is far from the first time that Imran put his foot in his mouth. Let’s take a look at some part gaffes:

Welcoming Taliban

While the world condemned the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Imran said the war-ravaged country had “broken the shackles of slavery’. He not only endorsed the Taliban but also said his government will work closely with them.

Sex crimes and mobiles

Imran last year also linked sexual assault with the misuse of mobile phones. While speaking about the ‘correct usage’ of modern technology, Khan on 25 August said sexual crimes are on the rise in Pakistan due to the “misuse” of mobile phones.

Victim shaming

In June last year, Imran in an interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan on HBO said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. It’s common sense.”

Following widespread flak, he backtracked on his remark saying he would “never say such a stupid thing”.

Indeed.

Fake video

Imran also hit the headlines when he shared a six-year-old video shot in Bangladesh from his verified Twitter handle in 2020 with the line, “Indian police’s pogrom against Muslims in UP.”

‘Slip of tongue’

Imran described former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a ‘shaheed’ (martyr) while speaking in the Parliament. Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry later clarified that it was a “slip of the tongue”.

Colonial import

Imran has recently blamed the English medium education system, inherited from the colonial rulers, for distancing him from his religion and culture. He said the British built such schools to “create an elite class in (undivided) India which is Indian in colour but thinks like us (the British), has our attitudes and through whom we can govern such a big continent”.

In a similar vein, earlier in 2021, in an interview with Geo News, Imran said sexual violence was a product of ‘obscenity,’ which he described as a Western import.

Indian population

Again in August last year Khan said, “New Zealand with a population of 40-50 lakh defeated India with a population of 1 billion and 300 crore in the World Test Championship final.” India has a population of around 136 crore or 1.3 billion.