Imagine status of women if Sharad Yadav had drafted Constitution: Smriti Irani

NEW DELHI: Union HRD minister Smriti Irani on Friday took a dig at senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav wondering what would have been the position of women had such politicians been part of the drafting committee of the Constitution.
Referring to a comment by Sharad Yadav, the minister said "I think it is paradoxical that today Sharadji, a very senior parliamentarian, yet again told me 'sit down, sit down.Imagine if such a politician was a part of the drafting committee."
Participating in the debate on commitment to the Constitution in Rajya Sabha, she said as a woman in India, she celebrate the fact that women in many nations across the world had to struggle to get their right to vote.
Irani said she got it because my Constitution gave it so at the birth of this very nation as a Republic in 1950.
"But imagine, as the leader of the House said today, what kind of restrictions such a senior parliamentarian would have imposed on a woman like me while this was being drafted. Would I have been told 'You have dark complexion, so you don't have right to vote?' Would I have been told 'you have short hair, you have no right to vote?'
"I see that some are disturbed by what I say. But apart from the social realities that were counted in this very House today, this also is a realty we must embrace, for the victims of such realty do not reside only outside this House, but we have witnessed this in this very House" she said.
The reference to dark complexion had a history to it.
In March this year, there were sharp exchanges between the two leaders in Rajya Sabha over Sharad Yadav's comments on complexion of women in the country.
READ ALSO:Sharad Yadav comments on skin, body of south Indian women in Rajya Sabha
During a debate on the government's Insurance Bill, the JD(U) president started rambling about the Indian obsession with fair skin. "Your god is dark like Ravi Shankar Prasad (present in the House), but your matrimonial ads insist on white-skinned brides," he said.
He then went on to discuss the complexion of south Indian women and said, "The women of the south are dark but they are as beautiful as their bodies ... We don't see it here. They know dance."
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"I appeal through you (chair) to the gentleman, do not make comments about the colour of any woman's skin. You (Sharad Yadav) are a senior member, a very wrong message is going to the rest of the country," she said.
This infuriated Yadav, who, in turn, hit out at Irani, saying, "I know what you are."
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(With inputs from PTI)