Hours ahead of his first one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh since he took over as Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif is believed to have made a disparaging comment about his Indian counterpart, calling the 80-year-old Singh, widely acknowledged as a statesman-like figure in the international community, a “dehati aurat”.
The comment, loosely translating as ‘village crone’, was made in response to Singh discussing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism with President Barack Obama. The remarks are believed to have been made during an off-the-record briefing to Geo TV’s Hamid Mir and NDTV’s Barkha Dutt. Hamid Mir highlighted the comment to the channel’s news anchor. Users can view a YouTube link of the video here.
Predictably, Twitter has exploded after this revelation and the phrase was trending on Twitter early Sunday morning. While some were wondering why Nawaz Sharif would make such a tasteless comment, even if it was off the record, others felt that this was yet another sign of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s weakness that anyone could mock him.
Here are a select few twitter reactions: Politics aside Nawaz Sharif’s statement calling MMS a Dehati Aurat reveals he has a feudal mindset and is a misogynist to boot! — iTomato (@aThakkali) September 29, 2013
I’d say @PMOIndia shd start talk with Nawaz with “khasmanukhani” and give dus jutiya on his head and show him real punjabi dehati aurat — Reviewer Gandhi (@reviewero) September 28, 2013
Nawaz Sharif said MMS was behaving like Dehati Aurat. This is complete nonsense. His statement should be torn and thrown out. — Faking News (@fakingnews) September 28, 2013
@tinsense RT Dehati Aurat Manmohan Singh should hit back at Nawaz Sharif and call him a Jehadi Aurat. — shibin (@shibinvj007) September 29, 2013
@ramindersays @NasimZehra NS called Manmohan Singh a dehati aurat. Shows his class contrast this wid Obamas rare gesture 2 MMS aftr mtg — Vins (@vinayverma99) September 29, 2013
Nawaz Sharif said MMS was behaving like Dehati Aurat…what he mean ? dehati aurate are so mute & helpless or holding power but no dignity? — QueenBee ? (@vaidehisachin) September 29, 2013
source: https://goo.gl/kkjvvS - First Post
