Congress president Rahul Gandhi was on Thursday served with a notice by the National Commission of Women for what it called a ‘misogynist and offensive’ comment against a woman.

“As a leader people look up to, he should not give such misogynist statements where he thinks that a woman is a weak person...What does he mean? I want clarification because it gives a very wrong impression when a leader says such things,” the commission’s chairperson Rekha Sharma said.

Gandhi had said at a rally in Jaipur that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ran away from last week’s debate in Parliament on the controversial Rafale deal and fielded defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman instead.

“Janta ki adalat se ek 56-inch ki chaati wala chowkidaar bhag gaya aur ek mahila se kehta hain ‘Sitharamanji, aap meri raksha kijiye...’ [The watchman with 56-inch chest fled from the court of the people and told a woman, ‘Sitharamanji, you save me]’,” Gandhi said referring to Modi on Wednesday.

Watch: PM Modi versus Rahul Gandhi on Sitharaman’s Rafale defence

“But you saw [that for] 2.5 hours [of the debate] mahila raksha nahi kar payi [a woman could not defend]...,” he said.

This comment invited a barrage of criticism for the ruling BJP with foreign minister Sushma Swaraj calling it a ‘new low’

“Rahul Gandhi’s comments on Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman’s reply to a debate on a subject relating to Ministry of Defence is a new low in the history of Indian politics, ” Sushma Swaraj tweeted.

Prime Minister Modi said it was an insult to India’s “women’s power”, Smriti Irani also called out the Congress president over his comments.

“Rahul ji’s ego was hurt so much that he lost his patience - how did a common woman dare to challenge Rahul?” Irani posted on Twitter.

First Published: Jan 10, 2019 13:08 IST