Chandigarh: Girls who accompany their boyfriends to OYO hotels know that they are not going there to perform aarti, and complain later of being raped and blackmailed, Haryana State Commission for Women (HSCW) chairperson Renu Bhatia said at a college in Kaithal earlier this week. Her comments have triggered an uproar on social media, with many even calling for her dismissal.
Asked to comment on the backlash, Bhatia told ThePrint that going to an OYO hotel to celebrate a birthday “has an inherent meaning which everyone knows and understands”.
While speaking at the RKSD College in Kaithal Tuesday, Bhatia had warned women that something bad could happen if they go to a hotel with their boyfriends. These women, she added, complain later that they were given drinks laced with intoxicants, raped and blackmailed.
Bhatia had been invited to address a function on awareness about laws and cybercrime. While speaking about instances of sexual abuse, she held women equally responsible for the abuse suffered by them.
“We come across complaints by girls where they allege that they befriended a boy. One day, the boy took the woman to an OYO hotel where he made her drink something in her cold drink. Did bure karma (bad deeds) with her, made her video and now, he is blackmailing her (sic),” she said, adding that such complaints are common these days.
“The girls know very well that when they go to such a place, they are not going there to recite Hanuman ji’s aarti,” remarked Bhatia, a former secretary of the BJP’s Haryana unit.
She went on to warn young women that “when going to such a place (a hotel), anything bad can also happen to us in the name of friendship”.
“We have become so mature in other things that we know what we need from our parents. But the moment children pass Class 12, they start feeling as if they have wings, an udan khatola (flying machine). Girls start feeling that they are free from school dress and can wear whatever they like. They like to wear the most modern dresses. Boys think now they are free from school bags and will have a bike and a girlfriend,” she added.
Bhatia told ThePrint Friday that what she said while “counselling girls on how they can save themselves from sexual crimes, has been portrayed in quite a negative sense”.
The women’s panel chief also apologised for invoking Hanuman in her remarks and said she was only telling students that mediapersons often tell her about how young women suffer sexual abuse and that boys blackmail women using intimate videos.
“I don’t see anything wrong in telling young girls and even boys that if you visit OYO hotels to celebrate birthdays or for a party, you have something bad in mind and if something bad happens you should not complain later,” she said.
She added: “In our society, people will not mind their girls going to clubs or fast food joints for the celebration of birthdays, but they will never let their children go to OYO hotels for this purpose because this has an inherent meaning that everyone knows and understands.”
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‘Telling women not to visit hotels is discriminatory’
Advocating for stricter laws dealing with live-in relationships, Bhatia had also said in Kaithal that the state women’s panel has “limited authority” in this regard owing to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court.
The women’s commission, she said, “cannot interfere much” in disputes stemming from a live-in relationship. “Our efforts are to solve these cases. Also, in cases of live-in relationships, families are involved. And it brings a bad name to both families. Due to live-in relationships law, the number of crimes against women is also increasing,” she claimed.
This is not Bhatia’s first run-in with controversy.
On 31 December last year, reporters approached her for comment on allegations of sexual harassment levelled by a junior coach against Haryana sports minister Sandeep Singh. She responded by saying that the “allegations appeared unbelievable”, even before an inquiry could be held.
Recalling the incident, Jagmati Sangwan, vice-president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), said, “This is not the first time that the HSCW has made such a comment…As a chairperson of the HSCW, she was expected to provide support to the woman.”
Sangwan told ThePrint it was highly unfortunate that a woman occupying a post where she is expected to elevate the status of women was, in fact, demeaning them by her utterances. “Renu Bhatia should not only apologise for her comments but she should be immediately removed from her post.”
On Bhatia’s remarks at Kaithal, Sangwan said hotels are a necessity and frequented by both men and women. “So, to say that women should not go to hotels is discriminatory,” she added.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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