Naidu’s Advice to Renuka Chowdhury Is Not Even Remotely Funny

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu’s comment on Renuka Chowdhury shows how body shaming is passed on as a joke in our society. In her farewell speech, to mark the end of her term in Rajya Sabha, Chowdhury jokingly remarked about her association with Naidu. As per an article in The Indian Express she said, “He knows me from many kilos before. Sir, many people worry about my weight but in this job, you need to throw your weight around.” To this Naidu had retorted, “My simple suggestion is, reduce your weight and make efforts to increase the weight of the party”. While this interaction was seen as a casual tongue-in-cheek banter between the two veteran politicians, Naidu could have easily refrained from making body shaming comments.

While Naidu and Chowdhury may have known each other for years, the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha shouldn’t have forgotten his position and place of this interaction.

Mr Naidu is our Vice- President. He holds the second-highest constitutional office in our country. The weight of these credentials alone should have been enough for him to refrain from making a personal remark on Chowdhury.

Secondly, Naidu should have remembered that this was not a drawing-room banter between two colleagues. This was an exchange happening in the Upper House of Indian Parliament. There were numerous eyes and ears following their exchange. I agree that his was just a response to Chowdhury’s own remarks. But hers was self-deprecating humour, which Naidu took as a cue to sneak in a seemingly quick and witty “suggestion”. What he forgot however, was that he was being watched over by a sensitised press and population, who were quick to point out how unnecessary his remark was.

We have reduced body shaming to a joke

Indian society in general loves to use body shaming as a stance in arguments.

A certain lot of desi comedians have also reduced the matter which induces immense lack of confidence in people, to comedy. But it’s not their fault. People willingly watch and enjoy seeing women and men being shamed for their appearances. This fact in itself is a commentary on our collective sense of humour.

Use of insult for physique and features is so common in our society. People have expert comments on every possible aspect of human anatomy; be it overweight, underweight, colour of the skin, a bald patch, an imperfect nose or the texture of one’s hair. Eventually women are mostly at the receiving end of body shaming jokes. It's casual to pass on snide remarks on the appearance of a woman in our society. Perhaps this stems from their sense of inferiority which makes people find physical flaws in a woman, so that they can discredit her achievements and feel better about themselves.

Somehow, publicly passing a remark on a woman’s appearance is a normal social behaviour.

Naidu could have chosen to stay mum or steer away from piling on Chowdhury’s self-deprecating joke. But he did not. Similarly, most people can mind their own business or choose to appreciate good traits of another person. But instead they go on to make insensitive remarks, simply to garner a few laughs. Discouraging politicians from making such remarks, would be a great start.

Photo Credit : Source: NDTV

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