Last night, at a book launch, rebel BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha took a jibe at #MeToo movement which took the nation by storm where many men in the powerful position were called out by women for allegedly being sexual predators.
Shatrughan Sinha at a book launch in Mumbai yesterday: In the era of #MeToo,there is no hesitation in saying that behind every successful man’s fall also, there is a woman. I think I have been fortunate that despite doing all that I did, my name hasn’t popped up in the #MeToo pic.twitter.com/XAfhxbGhfg
— ANI (@ANI) February 7, 2019
Sinha cracked a sexist joke saying that in the era of ‘#MeToo’, there is no hesitation in saying that behind every successful man’s fall also there is a woman. As if the sexist joke which in a sly manner blames women for calling our their sexual predators which led to ‘downfall of successful men’, Sinha went ahead and added “I think I have been fortunate that despite doing all that I did, my name hasn’t popped up in the #MeToo”
You see, sexist, bad joke in poor taste is not as problematic as the second part of his statement is. What exactly has Sinha done that he is glad that despite doing ‘all that he did’, his name has not popped up in the #MeToo movement? It would be a little strange and weird to say that when the implications of what you say almost make it come across as ‘confessional’. It is like saying ‘I am slimy, but no one has caught me yet, heh heh heh.’
Sinha then followed it up with saying that he was just joking and his comment should be taken with a ‘plain sense of humour’.
Except, it doesn’t really come across as a joke. Earlier, too, Sinha had defended Saroj Khan’s sexist views on casting couch by saying that the concept of ‘you please me, I’ll please you’ has been happening since time immemorial.
Having said that, Sinha’s ‘joke’ however bad and sexist it was, is still fine. But the example he came to explain it was bizarre to say the least. The #MeToo movement has brought down with itself many names in the film and media industry, like Sajid Khan, Vikas Bahl, singer Kailash Kher and journalists like Vinod Dua and union minister MJ Akbar.
Sinha’s ‘joke’ is an example of the old adage which goes like, if you have nothing to say, say nothing at all.
