'Sack Rekha Sharma' Trends on Twitter after NCW Chief's Old Sexist, Derogatory Tweets Go Viral

Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women,came under backlash on social media after she met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and discussed the "rise in love jihad' cases with him.

“Our Chairperson Rekha Sharma met with Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, His Excellency, Governor of Maharashtra and discussed issues related to women safety in the state including defunct One Stop Centres, molestation and rape of women patients at Covid-19 centres and rise in love jihad cases,” the NCW said in a statement.

The NCW chief's meeting and mention of the term 'love jihad' triggered outrage on social media. Love Jihad, a conspiracy theory used to define Muslim men cajoling Hindu women into marriage with the intention of converting them to Islam. The term 'love jihad' became the centre of a heated debate once again recently after a commercial by the jewelry brand Tanishq showed an interfaith couple. It shows a Hindu woman married in a Muslim family as they prepare for her baby shower as per the Hindu rituals. The ad triggered backlash and Tanishq was compelled to pull it down after its employees faced threats.

However, after her meeting with Koshyari, netizens dug out Sharma's old tweets where she can be seen making derogatory, sexist and misogynistic remarks against political leaders and their families. People have termed her remarks as outrageous and demanded her resignation from the post.

In an attempt to debunk the allegations against her, Sharma later said that she did not use Twitter before 2012. However, her introduction on the micro-blogging site shows that she has been on the platform since 2009. The NCW chief has now protected her Twitter handle, even though screenshots of her tweets are doing rounds on social media.