"5 Daughters for a Son": Congress MLA Faces Backlash Over Sexist Remark

Jitu Patwari, Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh, caused an outrage on Twitter following his tweet that reportedly compared the ruling party's schemes to "daughters" born in a bid to create a son called "development." The comment received severe backlash online, including from BJP leaders, for being "highly misogynistic", which led to Patwari deleting his tweet.

The Congress MLA's tweet, originally in Hindi, said: "Five daughters were born namely demonetisation, goods and sales tax (GST), employment, inflation and economic slowdown while anticipating a son called development (Vikas)."

Sexist Remark Criticised

The tweet, directed at the ruling party, received angry reactions from netizens and political leaders for its controversial stance. MP Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan criticised Patwari's comment, saying: "As the country is celebrating sacrifice of Rani Durgavati (a mid-16th century queen), he is tweeting that five daughters were born for a son. Is it a crime to have daughters? Has Sonia Gandhi given the task of humiliating daughters to this leader?"

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Sambit Patra, BJP spokesperson, also condemned Patwari's statement as being "regressive" and "highly misogynistic", while bringing it to the notice of the National Commission for Women (NCW). Rekha Sharma, Chairperson NCW, took cognisance of the tweet saying, "Sad that these people with this kind of mind set are calling themselves leaders." Sharma responded with the assurance that action will be taken.

Patwari Issues an Apology

Patwari reacted to the criticism by deleting his tweet and issuing an apology. He tried to explain his comment, saying, "My tweet was to suggest how people have been waiting for years for development promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but they got instead demonetisation, GST, unemployment, inflation and economic slowdown which have broken the backbone of the economy." He expressed regret over his comment hurting sentiments and went on to compare daughters to goddesses.

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NCW and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) have served notices to Patwari over his "sexist" tweet. NCW issued a note saying, "It is very unbecoming of a political leader to make such demeaning and misogynistic remarks against girls." It stated that such a comment "belittles the very existence of the girl children", making it difficult to achieve "gender equality and rights of girl children". As reported by The Hindu, NCPCR sent a letter to Patwari that mentioned the "age-old" evil of preferring boys to girls led to increased cases of female foeticide in India.

Picture Credit: amarujala

Tanvi Akhauri is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.