Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday apologized after his selfie with women members of Parliament sparked a row. The selfie in question showed him posing with MPs Supriya Sule, Preneet Kaur, Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan Ruhi, and Jyothimani. It was captioned "Who says the Lok Sabha isn't an attractive place to work?", triggering a controversy with many netizens accusing him of sexism.
Tharoor later apologized for offending some people and said the "whole selfie thing" was done at the women's MPs' initiative. "The whole selfie thing was done (at the women MPs' initiative) in great good humor & it was they who asked me to tweet it in the same spirit. I am sorry some people are offended but i was happy to be roped into this show of workplace camaraderie. That's all this is.", he said.
Reacting sharply, National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma tweeted, "you are demeaning their contribution in parliament and politics by making them an object of attraction. Stop objectifying women in parliament".
"Incredible that someone, as exposed to equality discourse, as @ShashiTharoor would attempt to reduce elected political leaders to their looks, and center himself in the comment to boot. This is 2021, folks, " tweeted Karuna Nandy, a Supreme Court advocate.
However, TMC MP Mauhua Moitra defended Tharoor and tweeted "not surprised that a bunch of ugly trolls attacking @ShashiTharoor on a non-issue to detract attention from this non-attractive government’s decision to not allow a discussion on the farm act repeal.
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