A complaint has been lodged in Hyderabad against English weekly magazine Outlook, accusing it of carrying defamatory and objectionable remarks against a woman IAS officer and allegedly damaging the reputation of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. What are these objectionable remarks? In a small column in the magazine called Deep Throat, that focuses on insider news, a write-up focused much word space on the IAS officer’s fashion statement and the fact that she is “eye candy”. [caption id=“attachment_2321876” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Smita Sabharwal. Image from Facebook.[/caption] “She makes a fashion statement with her lovely saris and serves as “eye candy” at meetings, admit leading party politicians,” reads the column. It ends with: “The lovely lady, known for her ethnic style, recently stunned all by appearing in a trendy trouser and frilly top at a fashion show. And for once, she wasn’t sitting in an official meeting. But this appearance, too, made for a great photo op.” Govardhan Reddy and Ravi Kumar, both advocates, have now lodged a complaint with Saroornagar Police Station, in Hyderabad, by submitting a paper clipping of the weekly that also carried a caricature, which they said is highly objectionable and damaged the reputation of the IAS officer. Though the article doesn’t name any officer in particular, it alludes to Smita Sabharwal, the first female IAS officer to be appointed by the Telangana chief minister’s office. “No case has been registered so far. We made General Diary (GD) entry of the complaint and are consulting legal authorities. Further action will be taken based on the legal opinion,” the inspector told PTI. However, NDTV has reported that Sabharwal is suing Outlook for the column. This particular column has become infamously popular on Twitter with journalists and activists lashing out at the magazine. Here are some tweets:
Shame on outlook to write such a sexist piece. This lady officer is one of the most upright, capable officers pic.twitter.com/H7v4YGu6DY
— sunitha krishnan (@sunita_krishnan) June 28, 2015
One tweet by Alok Nath, and there were news reports, while a "respected" magazine does this to a lady IAS officer http://t.co/cc7WFbvukh
— Rahul Roushan (@rahulroushan) June 30, 2015
Impact Shorts
More Shorts
IAS officer to NDTV about suing Outlook for sexist remarks pic.twitter.com/2GmFw9lkjw
— NDTV (@ndtv) July 1, 2015
With Inputs from PTI


)

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
