The stalking case of Varnika Kundu has made shown what a woman in India has to undergo if she dares to voice against the harassment and more so if the harasser is politically well-connected. She is facing the extreme form of victim-shaming and slut-shaming by many on social media with BJP leaders at the rear position.
BJP state vice president Ramveer Bhatt told the CNN-News18 television channel, “The girl should not have gone out at 12 in the night.” He added, “Why was she driving so late in the night? The atmosphere is not right. We need to take care of ourselves.”
Mr Bhatti then went on to tell The Times of India that “parents must take care of their children. They shouldn’t allow them to roam at night. Children should come home on time, why stay out at night?”
The comment has not gone down well with the women across the country. They are all arms up against this regressive mindset that dictates them to lock themselves indoors. They have started posting their selfies showing them hanging out at midnight with the hashtag #AintNoCinderella and declare their solidarity Varnika Kundu.
Twitter is flooded with women hey are sharing their selfies showing them hanging out at midnight. They used #AintNoCinderella to declare their solidarity Varnika Kundu. Their captions mock Bhatti and condemn his remarks which they said were shaming victims instead of supporting them.
The 29-year-old DJ from Chandigarh, herself a daughter of IAS officer was followed and “almost kidnapped” by two men — one of them being the son of Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala — who chased her car as she drove home in Chandigarh on August 5 midnight.
SOURCE: BBC, The Indian Express