Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Political rhetoric hits new low with sexist remarks
New Delhi, Apr 17: There is no dearth of instances wherein women were ridiculed for voicing their opinions, their moral excellence was questioned and vitriolic statements were aimed at disusing their contribution to the society.
The sexist jibe used by senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan against Jaya Prada the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Rampur has triggered a political row against the controversial leader.
The controversial remarks hit a new low in the political discourse with comments like 'skirt wali bai' (the maid who wears skirts) and 'Pappu ki pappi' (against Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi) and 'daily facial' comments (against BSP president Mayawati).
Here we take a look at the outrageous remarks made by the people's representatives:
Jaya Prada
Popular SP member Azam Khan has become a part of a cheap controversy and an ugly news as he had made very nasty and distasteful statement and derogatory comments on yesteryear actress and BJP Rampur MP candidate Jaya Prada.
Azam Khan gets another EC notice for inflammatory remarks
At
a
public
rally,
Azam
Khan
commented
on
Jaya
Prada's
association
with
the
RSS
and
said,
"What
is
the
difference
between
you
and
me?
People
of
Rampur,
people
of
Uttar
Pradesh
and
the
people
of
India.
It
took
you
17
years
to
understand
her
true
face.
But
I
realised
in
17
days...
that
she
wears
khakhi
underwear."
Jaya
Prada
expressed
anguish
over
the
language
used
by
her
rival
SP
candidate
but
said
attacks
against
her
were
not
new.
Priyanka Gandhi
BJP leaders have been attacking Gandhi on her looks and attire since the day it was announced that she will foray into active politics.
JP leader Jayakaran Gupta has called her 'skirt waali bai' and said she cannot bring 'acche din' because of course the quality of a woman's work is TOTALLY dependent on her clothes no?
Another BJP leader from UP, Harish Dwivedi has made sexist comments on Gandhi's clothes. He said that Gandhi wore "jeans and top" when she was in Delhi but chose to dress in "sari and sindoor" when she visited rural areas.
BJP's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayavargiya also made headlines with his sexist comments against the Gandhi after he allegedly referred to her when he said that Congress party is fielding "chocolatey faces" due to a lack of strong political leadership.
Hema Malini
Retorting to BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya's chocolate face remark against Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma said, "It is unfortunate that BJP has a few rough faces which are disliked by everyone within the party. They have Hema Malini who keeps performing dance across the country in an attempt to garner votes."
Mayawati
UP BJP MLA Surendra Narayan Singh took political rhetoric to a new low and said the BSP chief has no right to comment on anyone's tastes as she herself does facial every day.
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"Mayawati ji khud roz facial karwati hain, vo kya humare neta ko kya shaukeen kahengi. Baal paka hua hai aur rangeen karwake ke aaj bhi apne aap ko Mayawati ji jawan saabit karti hain, 60 varsh umar ho gayi lekin sab baal kaale hain. (What will Mayawati say to our leaders, she herself gets facial done every day. By colouring her hairs mayawati ji proves herself to be younhg, she is 60 years old and still all her hairs are black.)"
Smriti Irani
In a fresh new low for national politics, Congress ally and People's Republican Party (PRP) leader Jaydeep Kawade took a derogatory jibe at Smriti Irani saying that the "size of her bindi depicts the number of husbands she has".
"Smriti Irani talks about changing the constitution with Nitin Gadkari. However, she wears a bindi and someone said that the size of a woman's bindi keeps growing as she changes her husband," Kawade told PTI.
Urmila Matondkar
Urmila Matondkar has been brought into politics on the basis of her face as she is a celebrity, said Gopal Shetty, a Bhartiya Janata Party MP, who is contesting against Matondkar from Mumbai North parliamentary constituency.
"People are saying that they will compare the face of Urmila ji and my work. She was brought into politics by looking at her face because she is a celebrity," Shetty told ANI.
Nirmala Sitharaman
Congress president Rahul Gandhi landed himself in a major controversy when he said that PM Modi got a "woman" to defend him in Parliament.
Rahul Gandhi said, "Janta ki adaalat se 56-inch ki chaati wala chowkidaar bhaag gaya. Aur ek mahila se kehta hai sitharaman ji aap meri raksha kijiye, main apni raksha nahi kar paunga, aap meri raksha kijiye. Aapne dekha 2.5 hours mahila raksha nahi kar payi. (The 56-inch-chest chowkidaar ran away from the Lok Sabha. And he asked a woman, 'Sitharaman ji please defend me, I would not be able to defend myself'. You all must have seen that for 2.5 hours, the woman failed to defend him.)"