Following her husband and SP chief, Akhilesh Yadav’s foot-steps, Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav, on Wednesday, defended her fellow SP leader Azam Khan’s disgraceful “underwear jibe” against BJP candidate Jaya Prada, terming it a ‘Chhoti baat’ (trivial matter).
Dimple Yadav had made the comments whilst in a conference organised to announce the candidature of SP’s Poonam Sinha’s from Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency.
In it rather appalling that Dimple Yadav, though being a woman herself, did not hesitate to defend Azam Khan’s sexist remark against a lady. In turn, she accused the media of magnifying a trivial issue. Yadav complained that the media didn’t take up other issues wherein few BJP leaders were involved in similar actions with the same zeal as it had added fuel to the Azam Khan issue.
Hinting at a 2016 incident when a BJP leader Dayashankar Singh had made objectionable comments against BSP chief Mayawati, following which the party had expelled him, Dimple Yadav asked, “When Dayashankar made a comment against Mayawati Ji, where was the media? When such comments are made against Priyanka Gandhi or me, why don’t journalists take it up?”
Calling the lowliness displayed by Azam Khan a small matter, Dimple urged the media to concentrate on reporting bigger issues like the ‘historic’ welfare schemes for women launched by her husband Akhilesh Yadav when he was chief minister of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) state.
Surprisingly, a day after Khan displayed his shallowness, SP President Akhilesh Yadav had also come out in support of Khan instead of condemning it. While speaking at a public rally, Yadav said that Khan was talking about someone else and not Jaya Prada and that Samajwadis do not use such language for women. Hum Samajwadi log hain. Kabhi bhi hum mahilaon k prati aur betiyo k prati, kabhi bhi koi bhasha galat istemaal nahi kar sakte hain” (We are Samajwadis. We can never use bad language for women and daughters).
During an election rally yesterday, Khan had attacked Prada by making sexist remarks against her. The Rampur MLA, in a single breath, swore on his late mother denying the allegations levelled by Prada against him and then went on to say that within 17 days he had recognised that the colour of her (Prada’s) underwear was Khaki (suggesting that Prada had RSS links).
An FIR has been filed against Khan by the UP Police for his misogynist remarks against Prada and a case has been registered under section 509 of the IPC. The National Commission of Women (NCW) has also taken suo moto cognisance of the matter and has written to the Election Commission to take strict action.
