Regressive and outdated: Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya reacts to Mukesh Khanna’s controversial #MeToo remark

New Delhi: TV star Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya has strongly condemned veteran actor Mukesh Khanna’s controversial #MeToo remark, for which he has been at the receiving end of social media. Mukesh Khanna courted controversy after he claimed that the #MeToo movement happened because women tried “walking shoulder to shoulder with men” and later issued a clarification on social media. 

Quoting a video of the 62-year-old actor from the interview, Divyanka tweeted, “How regressive & outdated is that! It’s cringeworthy when people at respectable positions make such remarks. Misogyny may be a result of a traumatic memory or past. That’s the only benefit of doubt I can think of. With due respect – I condemn this statement of Mukesh ji!”

Read her tweet:

After being heavily criticised for the statement, Mukesh Khanna had shared a video on his Instagram timeline and said, “I am not against women working. As I said let me show you my full interview taken by someone from which this “vivadit bayan” has been taken to malign me that I mean “this” which I don’t mean. I was just commenting on how MeToo can happen. You can see yourself in this interview how I respect women.” 

The video was from the same interview given to The Filmy Charcha, wherein he said in Hindi, “Men and women are different. The job of a woman is to take care of the house, pardon me as I say certain things. The problem of #MeToo began when women started working. Today, women talk about walking shoulder-to-shoulder with men.” The ‘Mahabharat’ actor added that both men and women have their own set of responsibilities.

“People talk about women’s liberation, but let me tell you that’s where the problem begins. The first person who suffers is the child because he doesn’t have a mother (around him at home), he sits and watches TV with his nanny all day. It all began when women started saying that they want to do what men do. No, a man is a man and a woman is a woman.”

Mukesh Khanna’s “misogynistic” comments drew sharp criticism from social media users.