New Delhi: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s comments on women’s attire at a camp on Friday, November 25, have sparked off a controversy in social and political circles.
“You (all) look beautiful in sarees. You also look good in salwar suits, like Amruta ji. And like me, even if one doesn’t wear anything, that also looks good,” he said at the yoga camp in Maharashtra’s Thane.
The women in the audience could be seen looking at each other uncomfortably after his remarks.
He made these comments while saying that many women “did not get a chance to wear sarees at the event” because of back-to-back programmes.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis was sitting alongside Ramdev when he made the comments. Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s son and MP Shrikant Shinde was also present at the event.
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra slammed the yoga guru saying, “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 was referring to the incident in 2012, when the yoga teacher was caught trying to dodge the police in a white salwar kameez.
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.
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) November 26, 2022
Advertisement
Condemning the yoga guru’s comments, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal said that he should apologise for insulting women.
“Swami Ramdev’s remarks 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 Ramdevji should apologise to the country for this statement!” Maliwal tweeted.
महाराष्ट्र के उपमुख्यमंत्री जी की पत्नी के सामने स्वामी रामदेव द्वारा महिलाओं पर की गई टिप्पणी अमर्यादित और निंदनीय है। इस बयान से सभी महिलाएँ आहत हुई हैं, बाबा रामदेव जी को इस बयान पर देश से माफ़ी माँगनी चाहिए! pic.twitter.com/1jTvN1SnR7
Advertisement— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) November 26, 2022
Also read: Interview: The Many, Many Things We Don’t Know About Baba Ramdev
The Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray questioned why Amruta Fadnavis did not protest against Ramdev’s comments.
“How come she [Amruta Fadnavis] remained silent after such a statement?” Loksatta reported senior party leader Sanjay Raut as saying.
“Any person, however big his stature, who makes [such] a statement should be slapped. On one side, you make laws for women’s protection, empowerment, and education and at the same time, in front of numerous women, a baba in saffron clothes insults women like this.”
Workers of the Nationalist Congress Party staged a protest condemning his comments and garlanded his photo with a pair of chappals.
मुंबई, 26.11.22 @MumbaiNCP च्या वतीने आज महिलांबद्दल निर्लज्ज भाषेत विधान करणारे भाजपचे दलाल बाबा रामदेव यांच्या विरोधात राष्ट्रवादी भवन येथे जोरदार आंदोलन करण्यात आले.
…1/5@supriya_sule @Jayant_R_Patil @DrFauziaKhanNCP @AjitPawarSpeaks @MPVandanaChavan @SunilTatkare @ndtv pic.twitter.com/KnS0dtxwO8— Nationalist Mahila Congress (All India) NMC (@NCP_NMCspeaks) November 26, 2022
Maharashtra Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant claimed that the Yoga guru’s real mindset has been exposed by his statement, News18 reported.
Maharashtra State Women Commission’s chairperson Rupali Chakankar on Saturday, November 26, served a notice to the yoga guru, asking him to clarify his stand in three days.
In a tweet on Monday, November 28, she said, “The commission office has received his clarification regarding this and he has apologised for the statement made.”
पाठवली होती ,याबाबतीत त्यांचा खुलासा आयोग कार्यालयास प्राप्त झाला असून केलेल्या वक्तव्याबाबत त्यांनी माफी मागितली आहे.
— Rupali Chakankar (@ChakankarSpeaks) November 28, 2022
