I’d like to think, and for good reason that is, that our country has more than enough problems and pressing matters to take care of, especially when it comes to women’s safety, before it starts diverting its attention to problems that don’t exist. With shocking studies revealing how women get raped every 16 minutes, to horrendous cases of domestic abuse, assault and even murder making it to the headlines of every publication, one would assume, and only naturally, that if no one else then the National Commission of Women would at least have its hands full trying to deal with the atrocities against women. But seems like, Chairperson Rekha Sharma is on a whole different tangent, using her voice not to solve existing problems, but create new ones.
Caught in a wave of political and social media fire, Chairperson of NCW, Rekha Sharma recently made a rather cringeworthy and controversial statement that has landed her plum in the middle of an online outrage. Following her meeting with Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, she came under the radar after it was shared how she happened to discuss pressing matters with him regarding women’s safety, molestation and rape of women patients at Covid centers and get this, rise in the ‘love jihad’ cases.
A concept thanks to the Tanishq ad , we expect that the NCW leader would have more things to discuss than this. However, what is more worrying is that people started to investigate her tweets and while communal harmony was never high on her agenda what was alarming were that many people found her misogyny-laden tweets! And to avoid the backlash, she quickly turned her account private.
Also Read : This Ad Showing Hindu-Muslim Harmony Was Taken Off After Trolls Accused The Brand Of Glorifying Love Jihad. What Have We Turned Into?
Our Chairperson @sharmarekha met with Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, His Excellency, Governor of Maharashtra & discussed issues related to #womensafety in the state including defunct One Stop Centres, molestation & rape of women patients at #COVID centres & rise in love jihad cases pic.twitter.com/JBiFT477IU
— NCW (@NCWIndia) October 20, 2020
One would assume, that for someone sitting in a position like that of Rekha Sharma, having the tools to drive change, promote equality and make the world a better place, would put them to good use.
Riled up at her comment and accusation for the rise in ‘Love Jihad’ cases, whereas not a single case has actually been reported in the country as per the Central government, angry netizens, went on to swarm her twitter profile, fishing out previous tweets that turned out to be far more problematic and Islamophobic in nature than even her recent statement.
The misogynistic tweets, which or may or may not have been manipulated at this point, were circulated across social media, before Rekha Sharma turned her account private and was accused of deleting several previous posts overnight. However that didn’t stop the netizens from digging out what was said in the past, where she had gone ahead to write things like, “I hate the word feminist”, or catcalling politicians like Priyanka Gandhi, and even showing blatant disregard for the Muslim community in her tweets.
What's the point of hiding your tweets now? Cannot believe that the Chairperson of India's National Commission for Women is so deeply misogynistic and regressive! What action will NCW take against Rekha Sharma's vile tweets? #SackRekhaSharma pic.twitter.com/k9IDPM2mLE
— Ruchira Chaturvedi (@RuchiraC) October 20, 2020
I am glad the nation is now demanding #SackRekhaSharma.
I was blocked a few months ago by @NCW and Rekha Sharma for demanding action against raising rape cases in UP and the misogynistic remarks about women by bjp leaders
It’s a shame women like her are heading NCW pic.twitter.com/xV5cs2XpzG— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) October 20, 2020
Hi @smritiirani ji:
Will you be taking action against @sharmarekha & dismissing her under Sec 4(3)(d) of The National Commission for Women Act, 1990 for the communal dog whistle of “love jihad” & for her past misogynist tweets?
Or does one have to approach the courts for this?
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) October 20, 2020
From 16,937 tweets before she protected her account, the NCW Chairperson is down to 16,727 tweets. At least 210 tweets deleted by @NCWIndia chairperson @sharmarekha. pic.twitter.com/iE3mPvFQh4
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) October 20, 2020
Good morning. While you all were deep asleep, Someone had to be awake the whole night to delete 350+ old and controversial tweets. pic.twitter.com/ceyFEWFXim
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) October 21, 2020
https://twitter.com/akhmxt/status/1318574083714338816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1318574083714338816%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_1&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arre.co.in%2Fgender%2Fdoes-india-need-a-womens-panel-chief-who-believes-in-love-jihad%2F
https://twitter.com/swat_eye/status/1318587099541504000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1318587099541504000%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_0&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arre.co.in%2Fgender%2Fdoes-india-need-a-womens-panel-chief-who-believes-in-love-jihad%2F
Not getting away with any of it, people even managed to pull out an archived sheet of her recent tweets which were reportedly removed by her after she landed herself in this controversy. And whether or not her previous tweets were fabricated or real, the fact that a prominent leader like Rekha Sharma could go ahead and be so blind to the idea of communal harmony, inter faith marriages was just too disappointing. Add to that that she heads the NCW and indulges in such sexist bullshit and you have a recipe for disaster.
Meanwhile, twitter rages as it trends the hashtag #SackRekhaSharma, demanding she be relieved of her duties as the Chairperson of a commission, when she comes from such a close minded and biased school of thought. We’d have to say, she had it coming.