Uttarakhand Finance Minister Premchand Aggarwal resigned on Sunday after weeks of Opposition-led protests over remarks he had made about “pahadis” – the state’s hill community.

The controversy has its roots in an exchange in the state Assembly on February 21.

On the first day of Uttarakhand’s Budget Session on February 18, Aggarwal accused Congress legislator Madan Singh Bisht of being drunk in the House.

On February 21, while Aggarwal was addressing an Opposition legislator’s question on urban housing, Bisht made a remark claiming that Aggarwal’s February 18 allegation about his drunkenness was a comment about pahadis.

This incensed Aggarwal. “Ye pahadi desi kya?” he asked. “Kya ye Uttarakhand saale pahad ke logo ke liye hi bana hai kya?” [What is this pahadi-desi? Was Uttarakhand only created for people in the hills?]

The Congress party alleged that Aggarwal had insulted Uttarakhand’s hill community. They claimed that his use of the Hindi word “saale” was unparliamentary.

The word literally means “brother-in-law” but is considered mildly abusive.

The controversy is raging against the backdrop of an amendment to the state’s land law, passed on February 21. It restricts the sale of agricultural and horticultural land to non-residents in 11 of the state’s 13 districts.

In the days after Aggarwal’s statement, there were protests across Uttarakhand. In Rishikesh, from where Aggarwal has been elected four times, protesters burnt him in effigy.

The minister went to great lengths to undo the damage. He apologised for his remark, reiterated his commitment to the state and even said prayers by the Ganga in Rishikesh.

He was summoned by the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party unit and asked to exercise restraint.

But when the protests did not appear to ebb, Aggarwal tendered his resignation to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday.