Sushmita Dev slams trolls, RSS; says Delhi Police left no other option: know full story behind the viral video

There were no Monday blues yesterday, especially for the people of Assam as most of the offices and educational institutions were kept shut throughout the day. Idle brain and the internet are one of the deadly combinations and that is what we all witnessed on Social Media platforms all day. An image of Silchar MP Sushmita Dev riding on a male’s shoulder with a mic in her hand was shared and trolled by people across all ages cutting gender barrier and religious ideologies. What was so offensive about the image? Before we get into that let us try to know a little bit more than one image and the 32-second clip.

Mahila Congress President Sushmita Dev and other members of the women wing of the party assembled in Delhi in the morning. As they started raising slogans against the NDA and Modi led government, Delhi Police placed a barricade to restrict the protesters beyond a certain point. The Police officials were holding a rope to mark a boundary, “All that was fine, till a male official of Delhi Police came and manhandled me. The male constable came and pushed me so hard that I was about to fall head down,” says Sushmita Dev, adding, “If I was violating any law and order and Police had to come and hit me, the female officials should have, but a male official doing such an act is unacceptable.”

The lawyer turned politician took a jibe at RSS too, “RSS always want the women to stay back at home and they do everything they can to stop women from expressing themselves. So, it is obvious whenever a woman tries to voice an opinion RSS cadres start shaming and troll them on Social media platforms,” she says. Dev feels that riding on a male’s shoulder is not a demeaning act at all and there is no reason to shame someone because of that, she says, “He was helping me, this was the only way I could have voiced my opinion, this was the only way for me to reach out to the gathering assembled there and above all he had no bad intentions, so why is this baseless criticism.” Dev feels instead of criticising and shaming a 32-second clip people should see the other side, she asserts, “If all male keep women on their shoulder with respect, the crime against women would come down significantly.”

Leaving politics aside, few trolls, especially from the people of Barak Valley questioned, how can a female politician do such an act. Few went on to question her integrity. Well, trolls are recognised all across as a massive waste of time, but it somehow reveals the mentality of the people in a public forum. This was not the first time a human being was riding on a fellow human being’s shoulder. All remember the iconic scenes after Indian 2011 cricket world cup victory in Wankhede stadium, or when he retired or when Sourav Ganguly retired. So riding on the shoulder is certainly not the issue, then what is it? A female riding on a man’s shoulder? That happened in the past too and you all who trolled Sushmita Dev today actually celebrated back then. Have a look at the photo below and jog your memory a bit, this is the Rio Olympics.