Asserting that the National Commission for Women's (NCW) approach towards Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Ashutosh reeks of "political favouritism", the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal lashed out at the former for completely disregarding Union Minister Mahesh Sharma and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan, who made controversial comments on women and rape.
Speaking to ANI here, Maliwal said that the DCW does not agree with what Ashutosh has said because there are two problems.
"One is that somewhere he has pre-judged that the entire activity was consensual when later on the woman actually came forward and said it was not consensual and was rape. The second problem is that he has actually compared the likes of Sandeep Kumar with Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru, which the Commission completely disagrees with," she said.
Further stating that the larger issue is that the NCW has summoned Ashutosh for his views, Maliwal added that if people were being pulled up for expressing themselves, why has the NCW not issued summons to Mahesh Sharma, who equated wearing skirts with actually getting raped and Azam Khan, who said that the horrific Bulandshahr gangrape, is a political conspiracy.
"Now these are horrific statements which are very misogynistic. So, the DCW wonders, why is it that the NCW only selects certain issues and chooses to act upon it. Why not issue a notice to Mahesh Sharma, Azam Khan also? The NCW seems to get active only when there is a media frenzy on an issue," she said.
Laying emphasis on the NCW's action in the case of Bollywood star Salman Khan and rape comments, Maliwal said that the NCW actually ended up making a tragic fool of itself, because Salman disregarded the summons and the NCW could do nothing about it.
Reiterating that she was not defending Ashutosh or any other politician who chooses to speak misogynistic views, the DCW chief stated that she firmly disagreed with the manner NCW has approached this particular issue.
Earlier, With the NCW summoning him for defending his former comrade Sandeep Kumar who is embroiled in a 'sex tape' scandal, Ashutosh lashed out at NCW Chief Lalitha Kumaramangalam asking that should he be punished for simply voicing his opinions .
After receiving a notice from a NCW, Ashutosh took to Twitter and accused Kumaramangalam of still being a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member.
"Notice recd from NCW. Should I be hanged for writing a column? Is india turning into a fascist state? Ms Mangalam as a chairperson of NCW, you should not lie on a national TV that u r not BJP member. Wikipedia writes You are still a member," he said in a series of tweets.
He called on the NCW Chief to look at Wikipedia, where it clearly states that she is still a member of the 'BJP National Executive'.
The NCW on Monday summoned Ashutosh, over his blog where he allegedly defended the sacked AAP minister Sandeep Kumar, who was expelled from the party after a tape emerged showing him in a compromising position with two women.
"We found that the blog was very objectionable as the tone used against women was very demeaning. First, he (Ashutosh) jumped the gun in trying to defend someone who as it turns out is actually guilty," Kumaramangalam said in a press conference.
Mentioning that one of the issues based on which the AAP came to power in the national capital was on providing security to women in Delhi, Kumaramangalam further asserted that the NCW could not just "sit back and accept" his blog, which is why he was summoned to appear on September 9th.
The AAP leader had written a blog titled "The Sex was Consensual, Private Act. Why AAP sacked its man" in his defence and mentioned that he didn't support the sacking of Sandeep Kumar on August 31st after his sex tape emerged.
"Maybe these leaders were fortunate as they didn't live in the TV era; they were not caught on camera; no sting operation was done. As a puzzled individual may I ask why the SEX VIDEO of two consenting adults should grab headlines of the day and why should it be debated on TV channels? If it is a sin and a certificate for characterless-ness, then the role of all the above great leaders in history should also be re-assessed and reevaluated," said Ashutosh in his blog.
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