Columnist Shefali Vaidya, who has often been on the receiving end of abuses on social media, yesterday again took to Twitter to talk about how she has been facing sexual harassment and receiving threats to her kids.
https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/993844750246596608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
To that, a journalist associated with The Times of India justified the attacks as ‘taste of her own medicine’ for taking on the celebrities who tried to malign Hinduism.
https://twitter.com/rachitaprasadET/status/993876050676535298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The ‘hit where it hurts most’ part Prasad is talking about is a tweet by Vaidya where she called for the boycott of films of Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar, Kareena Kapoor and others who tried to bring a religious twist to the heinous Kathua rape case.
https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/985918043300675585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
However, as evident, ‘hit them where it hurts’ is a figure of speech and Vaidya is not really calling for physical violence. The sexual harassment and threats she receives, are real. Hence, Prasad’s justification as ‘taste of her own medicine’ appears like she is cheering the harassment.
When she was called out, she backtracked and shifted goalpost.
https://twitter.com/rachitaprasadET/status/993886920315949065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/rachitaprasadET/status/993913683523891200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This is not the first time journalists have cheered harassment of right-wing women, just because they have opposing ideologies. Recently, The News Minute’s editor in chief Dhanya Rajendran was called out for her insensitivity for using tears rolling down the cheeks’ laughing emoji to show her happiness and amusement at Sadhvi from MP being harassed.