CHANDIGARH: Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today appealed to National Women Commission Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar to take action against chief minister Bhagwant Mann for passing misogynistic, derogatory and sexually explicit remarks against women at a function held to mark International Women’s Day in Ludhiana.
The Bathinda MP, who met the NCW Chairperson yesterday evening, apprised the latter that the chief minister had passed remarks amounting to sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of women in his address and that a case should be registered against him for the same. Mrs Harsimrat Badal told the Commission Chairperson that this was essential to send a strong message that women could not be objectified in this manner.
Giving details, Mrs Badal said the chief minister during his address detailed how he had falsely claimed to be in a relationship with a girl to his friends. She related how the chief minister even objectified this girl by referring to her as a ‘yellow wasp’, ‘Pakistan da jhanda’ and ‘bombshell’ based upon the colour of the dresses she wore.
The MP said what was even more disturbing was that the Chief Minister further stated that one of the girls who had rebuffed his proposal during their college days stood to receive him at a function in the college where he had studied and had been invited as the Chief Guest after he became a stage artist. She said the manner in which this anecdote was narrated suggested pride in recounting how a woman who had the courage to reject his advances was later made to formally receive him at an official function to showcase his power and authority.
The Bathinda MP told the NCW Chairperson that when the highest authority of a State publicly spoke about women in this manner before a gathering of impressionable college students - particularly young women - it sent a dangerous message that the dignity of women could be trivialised and their identity reduced just to their appearance for the sake of public amusement and cheap thrills.