After the controversial remarks by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat, his wife Rashmi Tyagi, who has been a Miss Meerut, has come out in support of her husband’s ‘ripped jeans’ remarks, saying that his words were not being presented in full context.
He (Tirath Singh Rawat) said that women's participation is unprecedented in building the society and the country. It is the responsibility of the women of our country to save our cultural heritage, save our identity, save our costumes," Rashmi clarified in a video statement, reported news agency PTI.
At a workshop organised by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in Dehradun on Tuesday, Rawat had said, "Wearing ripped jeans and showing knees in the race towards Westernization is the lesson being taught to kids these days. Where is this coming from?”
He related a story about meeting a mother wearing ripped jeans and said he was concerned about the example that woman was setting for society.
“This woman runs an NGO and goes out into society like this? What kind of culture does that propagate?” the Chief Minister added.
Following his comments, there was an immediate backlash on Twitter and women started the #RippedJeans trend on the microblogging platform as people used the hashtag to share pictures of them in ripped jeans.
Actor Gul Panag and singer Sona Mohapatra also took to Twitter to post their pictures in ripped jeans.
Opposition leaders in Uttarakhand also slammed the Chief Minister for his anti-women remark and demanded resignation from Rawat.
Uttarakhand Congress chief Pritam Singh termed Rawat's remarks "shameful" and demanded that he apologise to women.
State Congress spokesperson Garima Dasauni added that it doesn't behove a chief minister to make a derogatory remark about someone's sartorial choices and said such comments can hurt public sentiment.
(With inputs from PTI)
