Shorts

Mahabharat over PM Modi’s jibe at Congress’ Renuka Chowdhury

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu may have taken exception to Congress Member of Parliament Renuka Chowdhury’s hearty laugh, but she’s been a pro at using laughter as a debating trick for many years now.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark essentially comparing Chowdhury’s laughter to the wicked women from Treta Yug has sparked a mini-Mahabharat of sorts. Congress leaders have called PM’s jibe “condemnable”. On Twitter, while some have come out in support of Chowdhury’s right to laughter, others pointed out that Parliament was no place to do so and that she must learn to take a joke on her.

In The Indian Express today journalist Mrinal Pande wrote a piece headlined, “Who’s afraid of laughing women?”. She writes: “…judging by the nastiness that Renuka Chowdhury’s booming laughter uncorked in Parliament, it appears things have not changed much for women. If they had, one merry female parliamentarian would not have been singled out for ridicule, from among so many who also dared to laugh or raise slogans.”

Meanwhile, an old piece by author Devdutt Patnaik has come back into circulation. Headlined “The Laughter of Women”, it notes, “The idea of a woman laughing at a man is seen as the most humiliating act, enough for justifying her abuse in public. Women can laugh, but not at men.”

Also Read