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Uttarakhand CM says women wearing ripped jeans can’t run an NGO Ripped Mentality Peeks Through Ripped Jeans

Ishika Aggarwal Ishika Aggarwal Follow on X Send an email March 18, 2021
464 2 minutes read
tirath singh rawat
Image source - Scroll

Uttarakhand CM says women wearing ripped jeans can’t run an NGO, questions her sanskar with her clothes. How Sanskari is that?

On Thursday, the newly elected CM of Uttrakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat has landed has gotten himself in a controversy on criticizing women wearing ripped jeans, said he was shocked to see women in ripped jeans, “what example they set up before their children and the society”. He made this remark while speaking at a workshop organized by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in Dehradun.

In his speech, he is telling about an incident, where when he happened to talk to a woman. He says when he started seeing her from the bottom, she was wearing gumboots, above the boots, her knees were ripped, and there were people around. When he asked about where is she heading, she said, Delhi, what does her husband do, she said a professor in JNU, and what does she do, she said she runs an NGO. And then the dramatic line, “NGO chalati ho, ghutne phate dikhte hai, samaaj k beech mai jaati ho,bacche sath mai hai, kyaa sanskaar hai ye?

Mahila Congress National Secretary Aiyshwarya Mahadev in a statement on Wednesday said the “BJP has reinforced its misogynistic, patriarchal and oppressive mindset yet again with the statement of Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat”. Here is what she tweeted.

Reacting to his tweet, several celebrity female artists have also come up with their remarks on the CM’s statement. Amitabh Bachchan’s Daughter  Navya Nanda Naveli, Sona Mahapatra, and Gul Panag expressed their views on CM’s remarks on their social media.

Sona Mahapatra writes, “I don’t wear jeans owing to the humidity & heat here but happy for this ripped T-shirt with my संस्कारी घुटना’s showing!”

Amitabh Bachchan’s granddaughter Navya Nanda Naveli expressed contempt over the recent statements from Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat about women wearing ripped jeans. In a series of Instagram stories, she criticized the comments saying. “Change your mentality before changing our clothes because the only thing shocking here is the message comments like these send to society.” She also posted a picture of herself in ripped jeans saying, “I’ll wear my ripped jeans. Thank you. And I’ll wear them proudly.”

Well, the bigger question here remains is that even in the 21st century, people care about what a woman is wearing. And yes, not just people, but a minister, who holds a position of responsibility, takes vows for progression end up making comments on women’s clothes.

Tirath Singh Rawat’s comment is not just a misogynist statement but an utter judgment about how a ‘sanskari’ woman should look. Rawat simply questions the woman’s morality and intellect on the basis of her clothes and finds it shocking that a woman in ripped jeans is running an NGO. But in which book is it written that women need to have her body covered to run an NGO? Or is the clothes she wears define her intellect with which she can run the NGO? If she would have been in a salwar suit or saree, would she have been considered more apt for being an NGO worker? Indian society has been intricately driven by their moral policing ideas, and Rawat’s statement is just a mere instance of it.

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Ishika Aggarwal Ishika Aggarwal Follow on X Send an email March 18, 2021
464 2 minutes read
Ishika Aggarwal

Ishika Aggarwal

Can write, shoot, listen, talk and procrastinate. A feminist at heart, Ishika is an avid writer and multimedia person who loves talking about women, realism, and society. When not working she is either seen watching films or making one.
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