Vivek Oberoi’s tweet draws ire from women panels

Mumbai (IANS) – The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Monday sought a response from actor Vivek Oberoi for his “misogynistic” tweet on exit polls. Earlier the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission (MSWC) had found the post “disrespectful” to the dignity of women.

Demanding a “satisfactory explanation” from the actor, the NCW noted that the “insulting and misogynistic” Twitter post carrying the picture of a minor girl and a woman, drew a sly comparison between the poll results and a woman’s personal life.

It said that the post made is “extremely offensive, unethical and shows disrespect towards the dignity and respect of women in general”.

The Maharashtra women’s rights body had also taken cognisance of the tweet.

“Yes. We have studied the tweet and it is prima facie found to be objectionable. We shall serve him notice on Tuesday to explain himself,” MSWC Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar told IANS.

On Monday, Vivek landed himself in a huge controversy over a meme he tweeted virtually mixing politics and films by dragging in the personal lives of prominent Bollywood bigwigs.

His tweet showed a set of three photos – one referring to ‘opinion poll’ having a picture of Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai, next was the ‘exit poll’ depicting himself with the actress and the third showing Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with her husband Abhishek Bachchan and their seven-year-old daughter Aaradhya.

The meme was originally shared by someone else on Twitter, but Vivek picked it up for his own comment: “Haha! Creative! No politics here just life!”

As social media went into a frenzy, Nationalist Congress Party women wing chief Chitra Wagh and others demanded stringent action against Vivek for the meme.

“He has insulted the dignity of Aishwarya Bachchan. The MSWC must lodge a complaint against Oberoi and he should be arrested for crossing his limits of decency towards women,” Wagh said.

Celebrities Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Jwala Gutta and Madhur Bhandarkar slammed Vivek’s tweet too.