Shame on Smriti Irani for trivialising Priyanka Chaturvedi's Twitter rape threat

Rape threats on Twitter, unfortunately enough, are commonplace for women in India. Especially if they are opinionated, professional women working in charged spheres such as politics, activism or journalism. Anonymous trolls, mostly from the right-wing (also known as bhakts) but certainly not limited to that ideological camp, have been waging a sexual war on the female body for speaking their minds out. It's rough being a woman in India's notorious social media sphere.

But do we expect a confrontational approach from the women themselves when a fellow woman speaks out publicly of this daily abuse? Certainly, if you're Smriti Zubin Irani, honorable HRD minister of Modi government's prized Union Cabinet, you're allowed to scoff at another woman for complaining about social media's unpardonable sexism amounting to nothing less than rape threats.

When Priyanka Chatuevedi, national spokesperson, All India Congress Committee, posted an opinion piece taking up this issue, because she faced the "rape threat" herself, she wasn't for sure ready for being mowed down by a comparative tabulation on who gets trolled more - the Union HRD minister, or herself.

But looks like that is eaxctly what was in store for her.

Then the back and forth began, with Priyanka countering Shefali Vaidya that the comparison is meaningless because to prevent Irani from any direct bodily harm, she has the luxury of a "Z" category security apparatus, something Priyanka does not have.

The very first response from Irani was not one of solidarity across party lines. She did not deem it necessary to forget about the ideological differences for a minute and come together in a moment of standing up for a principle - that of opposing sexism and rape as a tool of perpetuating patriarchal rigidities online. Instead, the Union HRD minister chose to post a confrontational tweet.

A tweet, which might be of dubious nature itself.

But what came next from Irani was downright disgusting. It directly implied, even as a sneer, that Chaturvedi's reference to Irani's security cover was about making a breach in that cover. The innuendo "planning anything?" was just below the belt, given India's precarious national security condition.

Chaturvedi's reply was spot on and classy.

Something sorely missing in Irani's second rate tirade.

The AICC national spokesperson's final salvo was also an exact dissection of the Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet's controversial choices vis-a-vis the ministers it chose to pick.

But the saddest part of this tale is that an important and urgent plea for help from a woman was reduced to a "catfight" (a "Twitter spat" in popular parlance) between women. Instead of confronting the abuse faced by women across right and left ends of the ideological spectrum, Irani chose to beat her political opponent with a denigrating comment. What Priyanka faced is something actress Shruti Seth, activist Kavita Krishnan, among a host of others, have come across in the past, and have spoken out against. Recently, Krishna was asked if her mother had "free sex", to which both she, and her mother, Lakshmi Krishnan, gave a befitting and brilliant reply.

But the moot point is, this isn't a question of who has a more rigorous security cover. It is rather the fact that women en masse must come out in public against this ugly form of sexism and sexual abuse. That it originates in the virtual world does not make it any less compelling or urgently threatening.

When Chaturvedi posited this question with reference to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley's recent comment on trolling, she was addressing exactly this problem. Her opinion piece is a good summation of the state of cyber laws in India and the phenomenon of online trolling as a form of hate speech amounting to direct incitement.

Why couldn't Smriti Irani get this simple point? Why should we be selective about condemning bullying by one trolls from one ideological camp over another? And does this churlish behaviour, this public putdown of a fellow political leader, behove a Union minister of Irani's stature? By doing this, doesn't she prove her staunchest critics right when they say that she's the most unsuitable head wearing the heavy crown of a ministry responsible for "educating" the young Indians?

Finally, in her reply to senior journalist Mihir Sharma, Irani tried salvaging the situation. But it was too little, too late. Shame.