Maharashtra: State Women’s panel serves notice to Sambhaji Bhide over ‘bindi’ remark

Right-wing leader Sambhaji Bhide’s meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Mantralaya on Wednesday turned controversial after the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission served him a notice demanding an explanation over his comment on a woman journalist.

A video during Bhide’s visit to Mantralaya on Wednesday went viral on social media. In the video, Bhide is seen telling a news channel’s woman journalist to apply ‘bindi’ on her forehead before coming to take his byte and refusing to speak to her. He went on to say that a woman is like ‘Bharat Mata’ and “she should not be like a widow by not applying bindi”.

Maharashtra State Women’s Commission president Rupali Chakankar, in her notice to Bhide, said, “You refused to talk to a woman journalist because she had no bindi on her forehead. A woman is known by the quality of her work. Your statement is demeaning to a woman’s pride and her social stature.”Chakankar said that the commission was taking note of his statement as it has led to angry comments from across the society. 

“Under Section 12(2) and 12(3) of the State Women’s Commission Act, 1993, you are hereby asked to explain your position of not speaking with a woman journalist because she was not wearing a bindi,” it said.The journalist later tweeted that whether to apply bindi or not was her choice. “It is my right to decide as to whether to apply bindi or not and when to apply it. We live in a democratic country,” she tweeted.

Known for his controversial comments, Bhide, popularly known as ‘Guruji’, came into national spotlight after the then Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate NarendraModi in January 2014 visited Sangli to meet him. He has courted controversy in the past as well, when he claimed that couples were blessed with sons after eating mangoes from his farm.