Dehradun: Following Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat’s comments on how women should dress to preserve the “sanctity” of home, Twitter was flooded with photos of women in ripped jeans. By Wednesday evening, a search for “ripped jeans” on the microblogging platform returned Rawat’s page as the top result.
The newly appointed CM had a day before said ripped jeans leads to societal breakdown and is a result of the “bad example” parents set for children. TOI had reported the story on Tuesday.
“While the western world follows us, doing yoga … covering their body properly, we run towards nudity,” Rawat had said at the inaugural session of the two-day workshop organised by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in Dehradun. He had added that he was “shocked to meet a woman who ran an NGO wearing ripped jeans. “If this kind of woman goes out in the society to meet people and solve their problems, what kind of message are we giving out to the society, to our kids?” he asked the audience.
What started out with two trends, #rippedjeans and #RippedJeansTwitter, with over 2,000 tweets by afternoon, soon put the spotlight on Rawat himself — at the time of filing this report, “Uttarakhand CM” was among the top 18 trending subjects in India with over 6,400 tweets. And it wasn’t just on Twitter. By evening, Amitabh Bachchan’s granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda had posted an Instagram story saying, “Change your mentality before changing your clothes. Because the only thing shocking here is the message comments like this send to society.”
The reactions ranged from outrage to ridicule. Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal tweeted a video clip of his speech with a caustic comment. All India Mahila Congress also tweeted the clip. Hours later, it tweeted the organisation’s national secretary Aiyshwarya Mahadev’s statement, calling the comments “deeply offensive and smack(ing) of a deep seated prejudice and notions on how women should behave and dress.”
Some came up with a novel “solution”, posting photos of themselves in denim shorts. Ankita Konwar, Milind Soman’s wife, tweeted, “I mean I’m all for sarees but ripped jeans aren’t bad either #rippedjeans,” posting two photos of herself — one in ripped denim and another in a sari.
Some asked what the status of women’s reservation bill was, and others reminded Twitterati of the #GirlsWhoDrinkBeer hashtag when then Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar had said he was afraid because “even girls have started drinking beer”. “Let’s tweet our #rippedjeans pics with #GirlsWhoWearRippedJeans,” tweeted a senior journalist; another added: “Message is that women can and should wear what they want. Simple…#rippedjeans are cool..summers mein shorts be chalega..deal with it.”
The chief minister had not issued any statement on his comments at the time of filing the report.

 

Original Source