India witnessed a historic moment with the Indian Team winning its first in Australia and being the first team from the subcontinent to win a Test Series in Australia. Cheteshwar Pujara was awarded the Man of the Match and Man of the Series trophies. The win was a huge leap forward for, and was widely celebrated.
The historic win however, was overshadowed by the release of the Koffee With Karan episode last sunday which had Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul as guests for the evening.
Pandya engaged in misogynistic comments and almost bordered to objectifying women. He spoke about his sex life, the club scene and how he texts the same flirty message to multiple women and was not even ashamed of it. KL Rahul attested to having witnessed screenshots of such messages, and the host, Karan Johar’s laughs were just seen to be encouraging the statements made by the cricketer, one after the other.
Pandya also admitted to having pointed out women who he has slept with at parties with his parents having a “cool” attitude towards this notion. He also said that he doesn’t even bother asking women their name and only cares about watching them move in clubs.
The show aired on Sunday, 6 January 2019, was met with ardent protests of outrage from people on social media on condoning this behaviour.
The Board Of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sent showcause notices to Pandya and Rahul, demanding an explanation for their comments within 24 hours. BCCI is contemplating the decision that whether cricketers should be allowed to appear on such non cricket shows. Even though no line of code of conduct was crossed, however both KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya have been suspended indefinitely.
In response to the notice, Pandya took to Twitter to write an apology to anyone he has hurt with his words and claims to have been carried away by the nature of the show. He also stated that he did not realise that he would offend the sensitivities of the viewers with his comments. He had not comprehended the extent to which his statements would be offensive.
Even though he is now apologetic and claims to not have any wrong intentions, the lack of respect towards women, that he showcased on National Television, is extremely questionable.
Indeed, to truly create history, our nation needs to educate men and concentrate on their upbringing. They need to be taught that scores should only be made on the cricket field, and there should be nothing known as “scoring” women.
Hardik Pandya truly lost all respect he had in the eyes of the society and the kind of thinking he possesses should be hugely discouraged and should not be showcased as being “cool.”
Pandya represents his team and our nation wherever he goes and thus, the views and the thinking that he has shared on this frivolous chat show, are nothing less than shameful to the entire nation.
By Neeti Oberoi and Rhea Sachdev
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