Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Maharashtra minister Babanrao Lonikar has landed in the soup after an audio clip surfaced on social media in which he purportedly called a woman tehsildar a “heroine”, although he did not take anybody’s name.
While speaking at a function in Karhala village in Jalna district on Saturday, Mr. Lonikar also said a “heroine can be roped in” for a planned farmers’ rally.
The comments invited the ruling Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) ire, with the party saying that his “unacceptable” remarks amount to outraging the modesty of a woman.
However, Mr. Lonikar defended the use of the word saying that ‘heroine’ was not an abusive term, and he meant it as a “leader who does good work.”
In the audio clip of his speech, the BJP leader can be heard saying, “If farmers want an aid of ₹25,000 from the government, then we can plan the biggest rally in Marathwada here in Partur. We can involve 25,000 to 50,000 people in it. If zilla parishad and panchayat samiti members decide then we can have the biggest march in the State in Partur.”
“We can call (former chief minister) Devendra Fadnavis, (former ministers) Chandrakant Patil and Sudhir Mungantiwar. You tell who should be called…We can call a heroine for it. If not, then we have our tehsildar madam as heroine,” he said.
When contacted on Sunday, Mr. Lonikar said, “I have not insulted our tehsildar through my statement. The word heroine or hero is used for a leader who does good work. You can check the dictionary. This is not an abusive word and it does not have a negative meaning,” he said. Mr. Lonikar said he was only planning a rally over the issue of aid to farmers.
BJP spokesperson Shirish Boralkar defended the leader saying he was speaking about development of farmers. “His statement was presented in a twisted manner by the media,” Mr. Boralkar said.
Senior NCP leader and MLC Vidya Chavan criticised Mr. Lonikar for his remarks. “His comments against the woman tehsildar are completely unacceptable and it reflects the BJP’s mentality. Instead of respecting the working women, the BJP leader is bringing shame to them by making comments on their looks,” she alleged.
“Making such remarks about woman’s looks amounts to outraging her modesty,” Ms. Chavan said.
