Click to play videoJaipur: Gender bias in the Rajasthan police has been exposed by the action of none other than one of their own senior officers.
He said women are weaker than men and cannot be part of the Rajasthan Armed Police.
The statement has kicked up quite a row in the state.
Incidentally, the women’s wing of the Rajasthan police force was proudly named after a brave Rajput queen.
But now the future of Rajasthan’s new all-woman Hadi Rani battalion hangs in the balance.
Its future boss, an Additional Director General of the Armed Constabulary has written to the government to keep its formation on hold.
The letter, a copy of which is available with CNN-IBN, says, “Women police personnel's physical, mental and intellectual standards fall short of their men counterparts which is why they cannot be given independent charge of handling tough law and order situations.”
But the top cop who is uneasy about directing th empowered women police force denied any bias when he spoke to CNN-IBN.
"Recruitment is done by the headquarters branch of the police dept. as Additional DG (RAC), this force will come to me after the recruitment,” said ADG of Police (RAC) of Jaipur, Navdeep Singh.
Rajasthan;s Chief Minister Gehlot-led government is yet to respond but the top cop's shocking remarks have already caused a huge uproar.
The Opposition BJP accuses the Chief Minister of targetting all the pro-woman schemes of Vasundhara Raje.
First the Bhamashah financial empowerment scheme was hit and now the Hadi Rani force will be.
"The shocking development is that just to please the chief minister the officer has even written that women are not as capable as men on the scales of mental, physical and intelligence levels," said the President of BJP Women's cell in Jaipur, Suman Sharma.
The BJP is now demanding that the government take action against the ADG for such a gender-insensitive remarks, failing which the party is planning to move the court.
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