Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul's misogyny and sexism are typical of all that's wrong with India's 'boys will be boys' culture

Last year will be remembered, among other things, as the year when India’s #MeToo movement took root and sparked debates about what is socially accepted behaviour by men towards women. It’s ironic then, that Koffee With Karan’s opening episode of 2019 was fraught with misogyny and sexism and seemingly justified all that’s wrong with the world today. The show featured two of India’s young, upcoming cricketers, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul, best friends and mates, on and off the field. The setting was perfect for millions of young, impressionable boys in this country watching their idols speaking on what makes them tick, and getting to know them better. And the show couldn’t have been a bigger let down. [caption id=“attachment_5856751” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Hardik Pandya, Karan Johar and KL Rahul on Koffee with Karan.[/caption] Karan introduced the duo as young, talented and brattish cricketers, and set the stage to play the indulgent auntie who giggled through 48 minutes of a ‘boys will be boys’ extravaganza. And like all aunties do, he started by asking them about the ‘many’ women in their lives. Hardik Pandya established himself as someone who’s deeply influenced by ‘Black’ culture, but this isn’t the ‘Nelson Mandela’ brand of Black culture we’re talking about here; it’s more the Chris Gayle variety. It’s after all, hard to forget Gayle’s lewd remarks to female journalists on more than one occasion. Hardik started by saying there’s a distinction between seeing someone, dating and being in a relationship and quickly veered into a boastful zone about his conquests. Finding out the names of women or talking to them aren’t as important as watching and observing them because he has to see how they move first. “I’m little from the black side so I need to see how they move (sic),” he said. Some would say that’s racist but then hey, we’re Indians—what’s a little stereotyping, eh? Ten minutes into the episode and Pandya has already painted himself into the picture of the guy who flunked every class in school while growing up but ‘gets the chicks’ anyway. KL Rahul is the soft-spoken, educated wingman that charms the women, and helps out his ‘bro’ wherever required. It’s like watching a badly made Seann William Scott film but with a new brand of desi boys who measure success by the number of notches on the bedpost. Pandya then talked about his family being open and how he came home after losing his virginity and said, “Aaj karke aya hai (I did it today).” He made that sound like an achievement the way most 15-year olds would with their gang of bros, but it didn’t stop there. He recounts taking his parents to a party where they asked him which woman he was seeing, and he pointed at all of them one by one “and they were like waah proud of u beta (sic)." What was Karan’s reaction? A fit of giggles and a “well done.” When asked what happens if both of them like the same girl, Rahul said it was the girl’s choice but Pandya countered this with the sexist view that it’s up to the man’s talent and his ability to close the deal.

That a girl could have agency is not a thought that crossed the three testosterone-addled minds in this conversation. For them, women are just playthings that exist for their entertainment.

Pandya went on to normalise stalking on Instagram and butt-slapping your teammates. Through all of this, his wingman smiled benignly as a true master of the 11 Rules of the Bro Code. The comments were not received well, either by the BCCI or India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli. While the Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai, a body which oversees the functions of BCCI,  recommended a two-ODI ban on Pandya and Rahul , Kohli dissociated himself from the ‘inappropriate’ comments made by the duo, saying that their remarks do not reflect team’s beliefs and Indian dressing room culture. “From the Indian cricket team point of view, any inappropriate comments that are made in that scenario are something that we definitely don’t support and the two concerned players felt what has gone wrong and they have understood the magnitude of what’s happened,” Kohli was quoted as saying. As all of this blatant misogyny and toxic masculinity unfolded, Karan just laughed along. This was the same man who started this season with talking about ‘Girl Power’ and said that the #MeToo movement was heralding a much needed cleanse in the industry and society at large. How is anything going to change if men in positions of power like Karan continue to not just condone but encourage objectification of women? This latest episode of KWK amplified ‘locker room talk’; only it was beamed into millions of homes across the country. It almost gives one a deep sense of schadenfreude when Karan asked Rahul about an overrated film he’s seen in the recent past, and he said, “I watched Dhadak.”