Congress leader and boxer Vijender Singh created quite the stir on Sunday with a comment on Twitter. When a fan jocularly asked for his help in getting married, he replied accordingly which has attracted a lot of criticism on social media.
Vijender Singh initially made a comment on the Covid-19 pandemic situation across the country, blaming the central government for the current crisis. To that, a fan commented, “Viju brother, help me get married.”
Singh’s response has been interpreted by many as him saying that now is the ‘era of prostitutes’. The comment has sparked an outrage on social media, with people calling him out for his apparent abusive language.
https://twitter.com/NehaBeniwal18/status/1393819279443652610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/Akbk28815586/status/1393836055007170562?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwFact Check
While the word used by the Congress leader might read like the derogatory word for prostitutes, in chaste Haryannvi, it actually means ‘bachelor’. Thus, Singh’s response to the request to arrange the fan’s marriage was not ‘this is the era of prostitutes’ but ‘this is the era of bachelorhood’.
The same was pointed out by people familiar with the Haryannvi language on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/theskindoctor13/status/1393833964498952194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/vilayatisharab/status/1393831826876141570?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe confusion appears to have been caused by the medium of communication where it is very easy to misinterpret someone when one tweets in a local language. On this instance at least, Vijender Singh did not use derogatory language for women.