NCW writes to EC over post against Kangana Ranaut
New Delhi, March 26
Congress leader Supriya Shrinate’s “sexist comments” against actor Kangana Ranaut, BJP candidate for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh, on Tuesday escalated into a massive faceoff between the opposition party and the ruling BJP.
Top ministers led by Smriti Irani and senior BJP leaders attacked the Congress “mindset” even as Shrinate, who heads the Congress digital and social media segment, dissociated from the remarks and deleted the post saying many people had access to her accounts.
The post had been uploaded on Shrinate’s Instagram.
The National Commission for Women also took suo motu cognisance of the remarks and wrote to the Election Commission to take action even as the BJP demanded an apology from the Congress. Kangana, meanwhile, met BJP chief JP Nadda here and said she would take a call on whether to act against Shrinate later after meeting the party president.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi rejected Shrinate’s defence.
He said the “abominable comments” by the party’s social media head were not posted by default, but by design. “She deleted the post, saying someone who had access to her accounts had posted it. This makes it clear from where the social media accounts of the Congress are operated. The country should understand that such kind of negative and dastardly comments by the Congress are not made by default, but by design…This proves that the Congress and the INDI Alliance are playing into the hands of some unknown powers,” Trivedi alleged.
The NCW, in its complaint to the EC, said it was appalled by the “disgraceful conduct of Supriya Shrinate and HS Ahir, who made lewd and derogatory remarks about @KanganaTeam on social media. Such behaviour is intolerable and goes against the dignity of women…” While Kangana said all professions deserved dignity, Irani, BJP MPs Kirron Kher and Hema Malini came out in support of Kangana. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya attacked Shrinate’s saying, “One has to be self-conceited, to the point of being deranged, to do so. Also the admins must have a very low opinion of you to post such offensive stuff and get away with it.”
