UP Election 2022: Row over Jayant's remark on Hema Malini - Why can't netas keep 'cheeky' sexism away

Netas can't seem to do away with sexism. And worse they keep getting away with it.

Snide remarks on actor and BJP MP Hema Malini are disgustingly common in political discourse.

The latest to enter the sexist hall of shame is RLD chief Jayant Chaudhry.

At a poll meeting in Mathura, from where Hema Malini is the MP, Jayant said that Home Minister Amit Shah asked an RLD leader to join the BJP. He added that Shah promised to make him next Hema Malini. The comment obviously drew the ire of the BJP.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur has demanded an apology from Jayant.

Jayant's snarky comment on Hema Malini is not the first such sexist rant.

In the 90s, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was attributed for a comment about constructing roads in Bihar ”as smooth as the cheeks of Hema Malini”. Lalu however denied having made such a comment.

But this "cheeky" comment has become the most distasteful constant in political references.

In 2019, Congress Madhya Pradesh minister PC Sharma again promised to turn Bhopal roads as smooth as Hema's cheek.

In 2013, the then UP minister Raja Ram Pandey promised to build roads as smooth as the cheeks of Hema Malini and Madhuri Dixit.

Then there was another MP minister Sajjan Singh Verma who said that BJP makes Hema Malini dance to get votes.

Recently, Maharashtra minister Gulabrao Patil compared the smoothness of roads in his Assembly constituency, Jalgaon district, to Hema Malini's cheeks. The minister later apologised for the remark.

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