It appears that India’s ruling dispensation, even in their greatest moment of triumph, has found new ways to take offence. At the receiving end of their post-victory recriminations were two women MPs from West Bengal – Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan. The young Tollywood starlets who were elected with record margins on Trinamool Congress (TMC) tickets, had allegedly violated ‘sanskaar’ by wearing jeans and taking selfies in front of the Parliament, some Hindu right-wing trolls insisted.
To their credit, the two MPs hit back at the trolls. Chakraborty told BBC that she represented the youth and they’d be proud that she shared their sartorial sensibilities, and that the moral police ought to be more concerned with MPs with criminal cases against their names. Jahan noted that clothes were irrelevant and that her work would give the trolls a fitting response.