Foot in mouth: Farooq Abdullah apologises for sexist remark

What Farooq Abdullah said  Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Abdullah said, “I’m scared to talk to a woman these days. I don’t even want to keep a female secretary, who knows, I might end up in jail because of a complaint.” “No, I’m not blaming the girls, I’m blaming society itself. Society has reached this point where now after one direction, it’s pressurizing everyone the opposite way,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_1271053” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Farooq Abdullah didn’t exactly have the best day today. Reuters[/caption] What the reactions were National Commission for Women member Mamata Sharma said, “I don’t really have a comment to make on what he said. He doesn’t need to retract his statement because he hasn’t really said anything so insulting. Women are so aware now that they know how to take care of themselves.” Son and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah was less forgiving and tweeted:  BJP’s Maneka Gandhi was far harsher in her criticism. “Dr Abdullah has made it a profession of taking everything lightly,” she said. “Because he took everything in Kashmir lightly it became a total mess… His ministry is a total mess and the only pictures of is you see him dancing, enjoying,” the BJP leader said. (Ouch!) Soon after the widespread criticism, Abdullah emerged from Parliament to tender what he said was an apology. How Farooq Abdullah ‘apologised’ “Things have gone haywire, people are scared now. No doubt we are all against rape and anything to do which undermines the prestige of a woman, they should get their respect,” he said. “That’s why we’re fighting here (Parliament) also that you should get your 33 percent reservation that is necessary, that that bill should go through. If there is something I have said that has gone wrong I’m sorry, I never meant it that way. The question here is that one should be very careful in dealing with such things,” Abdullah said. And then he proceeded to trip over his own apology. “Even when you have to see a lady in the office, now you have to have another man standing there, so that one may not say that something has been done,” he said. When pointed out that his apology didn’t sound very different from his original statement, the former chief minister said,"Arre yaar, why are you trying to trap me? Your media also can’t do anything else. Sometimes you trap Modi, sometimes you’re trapping someone else. Now do want to catch the women also? Why don’t you send all the men to jail directly." CNN-IBN caught up with him and pointed out that his son had tweeted hoping that he would apologise, Abdullah shot back that his son also didn’t know the facts of the case. “My son is as misinformed as everyone else,” Abdullah said. Abdullah said that he said “many things in a lighter way with the hope that better messages will go to the people.” So would he like to tender a formal apology? “Ab kitna kheechogi? Ab kya jail bhejogi mujhe?(How much will you stretch this? Will you now send me to jail?)” he said before taking a call and zipping off.