NCW sends notice to Rahul Gandhi over Nirmala Sitharaman remark

National Commission for Women(NCW) today sent a notice to Congress president Rahul Gandhi after he said at a rally in Jaipur that PM Modi had made a woman defend him in Parliament over the Rafale deal, referring to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

PM Modi hit back at a rally in Agra over Congress president's statement asserting that it was an "insult to all women in the country."

"They are bent upon insulting a woman defence minister," he said, without naming Rahul Gandhi.

"This is not an insult to a woman, but an insult to entire India's women power, for which these irresponsible leaders will have to pay the price," the prime minister had said.

Rekha Sharma, chairperson NCW said: What is Rahul Gandhi trying to imply with his misogynistic statement? Does he think women are weak? The irony - calling an accomplished defence minister of the largest democracy a weak person."

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had attacked Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha during the Rafael deal declaring that he had lied about meeting French president Macron about the deal.

"We've asked explanation from Rahul Gandhi why he said what he said yesterday in his tweets. The statement was pathetic, sexist and misogynistic. That's why we've sent him a notice. He has to explain what does he mean when he is trying to talk low of women," Rekha Sharma said.

During the debate in Parliament, Sitharaman had said that it was a matter of “shame” that the Congress president was misleading the country on the Rafael issue. Sitharaman asked Rahul to apologise to the country from the floor of the House.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the defence minister had “lied” in Parliament that government orders worth Rs one lakh crore were provided to HAL while demanding that she should either place the documents in support of her statement in the House or resign.

Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha in a heated reply that "doubts raised" over her statement on HAL contracts were "incorrect and misleading."