A 1998 video featuring Union Minister Smriti Irani at the ‘Miss India’ contest has become the centre of a Twitter fight between leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), even as the controversy over the music video of ‘Besharam Rang’, a song from the upcoming film Pathaan starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone rages on.
Responding to a tweet by BJP IT Cell head and West Bengal co-incharge Amit Malviya, TMC national spokesperson Riju Dutta posted a video of Irani from the swimsuit round of the beauty pageant.
रंग दे तू मोहे गेरुआ…… pic.twitter.com/KSNmA9wp6h
— 𝐑𝐢𝐣𝐮 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚 (@DrRijuDutta_TMC) December 16, 2022
This led to Locket Chatterjee, BJP MP from Hooghly, calling Dutta a “misogynist”. “Men like him are responsible for rising crime against women,” she said, adding that they “resent successful women and their rise.”
Shame on Mamata Banerjee for appointing such misogynist men as TMC’s national spokesperson. He has no respect for women and the choices they make in life. They resent successful women and their rise. Men like him are responsible for rising crime against women. https://t.co/56WntLxKgb
— Locket Chatterjee (@me_locket) December 16, 2022
Dutta then accused Chatterjee of hypocrisy, saying that BJP has one set of standards for some women and another for others.
Moreover, I belong to a party whose leader is the definition of women empowerment. And you from a party that calls rapists “sanskari brahmins”. So please..side hatiye !!
— 𝐑𝐢𝐣𝐮 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚 (@DrRijuDutta_TMC) December 16, 2022
He also referred to the release of convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, saying that BJP called rapists “sanskari brahmins”.
I condemn it. They’ve no respect for women despite their CM being a woman. It’s unfortunate how they’re using old videos of women who’re successfully doing their job& doing politics. Distasteful!: BJP MP Locket Chatterjee on TMC’s Riju Dutta’s tweet on Union Minister Smriti Irani pic.twitter.com/8mxhsyPJZu
— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2022
Later, Chatterjee told news agency ANI that TMC has “no respect for women despite their CM being a woman”. She added that it was “unfortunate” and “distasteful” that the party was using old videos of women who are successful.
TMC has no problem with what Smriti Irani chooses to wear, it’s her right. But we oppose BJP’s moral policing and selective outrage against certain people. I have just shown the mirror to them: Riju Dutta, TMC spokesperson, on his tweet on Union Minister Smriti Irani pic.twitter.com/JY6xEIHVuv
— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2022
Meanwhile, Dutta told ANI that TMC did not have a problem with whatever Irani chose to wear, stating that it was her right to do so. He said that the party opposes “BJP’s moral policing and selective outrage against certain people,” adding that he had shown them the mirror.
The ‘Besharam Rang’ song row has been going on since Wednesday, when Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra took aim at Deepika Padukone and warned that if visuals from the song were not “corrected”, Pathaan might not be permitted release in the state.
“The outfits that have been worn in the song are objectionable. It is evident that polluted minds are behind filming this song. Anyway, Deepika Padukone has been a supporter of the tukde-tukde gang when she went to JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) protests and that is why I would like to request that they should correct the visuals of the song, correct the costumes, or else the permission to release this film in MP should be given or not will be a thinkable question,” he said.
Later, eminent film personalities like Baahubali producer Shobu Yarlagadda and veteran actor Prakash Raj expressed their displeasure at Mishra’s remarks. While Yarlagadda said, “We are hitting rock bottom now!” while quote-tweeting a post with the minister’s statements, Raj called out the ‘andh bhakts’ who are ‘colour blind’.
Amid this controversy, the film’s lead actor Shah Rukh Khan spoke about the “narrowness” driving social media at the inauguration ceremony of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival on Thursday.
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Premium“Cinema and advent of articulation through social media platforms have now become the foremost expression of human emotions and experience. The collective narrative of our times is shaped by social media and contrary to the belief that the spread of social media will affect the cinema negatively, I believe cinema has an even more important role to play now,” Khan said.
