Smriti Irani is the Union Minister for Women and Child Development.
New Delhi:
A video of Union Minister Smriti Irani from the 1998 edition of the Miss India beauty pageant found its way into an online debate over the movie ‘Pathaan’ on Friday, setting off a duel between leaders of the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.
Amid the controversy over Deepika Padukone’s orange bikini in one of the songs in the movie, Trinamool Congress leader Riju Dutta responded to a tweet by the BJP’s Amit Malviya with a video of Ms Irani from the swimsuit round of the contest.
रंग दे तू मोहे गेरुआ…… pic.twitter.com/KSNmA9wp6h
— 𝐑𝐢𝐣𝐮 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚 (@DrRijuDutta_TMC) December 16, 2022
The tweet upset the BJP MP Locket Chatterjee, who accused Mr Dutta of “misogyny”.
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
The Trinamool Congress leader, however, hit back, reminding how leaders of the BJP have defended rapists of 2002 Gujarat riots victim Bilkis Bano as “sanskari brahmins”.
Oh! Plz have a Life Madam…First, Stop acting like Saffron is your Party’s Paternal Property. Second, when other women like Deepika Padukone wears saffron the u lot have tremors but when Smriti Irani does, u lot have partial blindness. Hypocrites!!
— 𝐑𝐢𝐣𝐮 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚 (@DrRijuDutta_TMC) December 16, 2022
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
The exchange come amid attacks on the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer ‘Pathaan’ by right-wing social media users backed by some leaders of the BJP, which governs at the centre – in the second such vitriolic campaign this year against a Muslim movie star after Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ earlier.
Among those who have targeted the movie are Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra of the BJP, who claimed one of the songs in the film showed a “contaminated mindset” and threatened to block its release in the state.
Central to the controversy around ‘Pathaan’ is an allegation that in the song ‘Besharam Rang’ (Shameless Colour), actor Deepika Padukone wears an orange outfit which, according to its detractors, resembles the saffron that is sacred in Hinduism and is the main colour of the BJP.
Smriti Irani’s swimsuit video has been cited by many as one of the demonstrations of the double standards of those criticising Deepika Padukone’s bikini.
Campaigns based on such flimsy excuses against Mr Khan and those of his colleagues who are not seen as unabashed supporters of the ruling party have grown in recent years, threatening the country’s vast film industry.
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