Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 27: Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev’s unethical comments on traditional ladies attire implying that naked women look good has sparked off a controversy implicating the BJP because the remarks were made in the presence of Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of the Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, on the dais.
It also provided a chance to the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) to mount an attack on the incumbent Eknath Shinde government since the chief minister’s son Shrikant Shinde too was present on the dais and did not raise any protest.
Delhi Women’s Commission chief Swati Maliwal demanded the Yoga Guru submit an “apology to the country” while the Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra thought the Baba faced some psychological problems about women’s attire, and the Shiv Sena wondering if the Shinde government had “mortgaged its tongue” to the BJP government in Delhi that it had voiced any condemnation on such unethical remarks by the Yoga Guru.
The Patanjali Ayurved Promoter Baba Ramdev made the at an event in Thane, Maharashtra, on Friday night. The video was made viral on the social media by Swati Maliwal along with her demand for his national apology on Sunday. The Baba is heard commenting in the video with broad smiles, “Women look good in anything – saree, salwar kameez or even when they wear nothing.”
He went on to add, “I see everyone looks very happy. You have a happy fortune too. Those in front got a chance to wear sarees. Those at the back did not get a chance. They probably packed and brought sarees from home but did not have time to change,” Ramdev is heard saying in the video, smiling all the while. “You look beautiful in saree. You also look good in salwar suits, like Amruta ji. And if like me, someone does not wear it, that also looks good,” he then added.
The camera panned on the audience where women looked at each other in consternation. “You wear clothes for social norms,” Ramdev continued, laughing. “Children don’t have to wear any. We used to roam naked till the age of eight or 10 years. It is only in these days that children wear five layers of clothes,” he added.
Ms Maliwal’s tweet that accompanied the video said, “The remarks made by Swami Ramdev on women in front of the wife of the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra are indecent and condemnable. All women have been hurt by this statement, Baba Ramdev ji should apologise to the country for this statement.”
Slamming Ramdev’s comment Mahua Moitra said, “Now I know why Patanjali baba ran away from Ramlila Maidan in women’s clothes. He says he likes sarees, salwars and…Clearly got a strabismus in his brain that makes his views so lop-sided,” she tweeted, referring to the incident in 2012, when the yoga teacher was caught trying to dodge the police in a white salwar kameez in trying to escape from Delhi’s Ram Lila Maidan.
The Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray questioned why Mrs Fadnavis did not protest against Ramdev’s comments. “The government remains silent when the Governor makes an insulting remark on Shivaji, when Karnataka Chief Minister threatens to take Maharashtra villages to Karnataka and now when BJP campaigner Ramdev insults women. Has the government mortgaged its tongue to Delhi?” senior party leader Sanjay Raut told reporters.
The BJP has not responded to the comments, nor the Patanjali has so far issued any clarification on the Yoga Guru’s comments.
