Ms. Kavita Krishnan, polit bureau member of the CPI(ML), and also the editor of Liberation, is a known face. She voices her strong opinion, especially about women's rights, in television debates and on Twitter.
On Sunday she committed an error, an error for which she owes an unconditional apology. She tweeted saying that Baba Ramdev was offering "medicine" for "sexy breasts," and shared a link to substantiate her claim.
In her subsequent tweet, wherein Baba Ramdev was tagged again, she said that small breasts on women weren't a disease and that the website's claim that women wanting people to look at their breasts was "odiously sexist."
(Thanks to Politwoops for their deleted tweets service.)
What she said was perfectly fine, except for the fact that the link was not of Baba Ramdev's medicines at all! And, therefore, her whole statement criticizing him fell flat. The criticism was made on the basis of mistaken fact.
Though the website read "Swami Baba Ramdev Medicines" it was not his. It had a disclaimer at the bottom: "This website (Swamibabaramdevmedicines.com) is not official website of
Swami Ramdev Ji , Divya pharmacy or Patanjali Ayurved Ltd.
swamibabaramdevmedicines.com is a Free Information website."
But, who doesn't commit such mistakes? You and I do; everyone does. What can, and should, be done is to take full responsibility for the mistake, and offer an unconditional apology.
Instead, Ms. Kavita has conveniently deleted both her tweets, and is continuing to tweet on other issues. My tweet to her asking if she had deleted her tweets went unanswered. She is often seen taking a moral high ground and asking others to apologize for their mistakes. Why does she come down from that height at this instance? Thousands might have read her tweet, and based on that formed, or changed, their opinion on Baba Ramdev. It becomes her duty to amend that by tweeting the fact.
Ms. Kavita, you may please apologize to Baba Ramdev. If you do not possess that much courage, at least tweet saying that you committed an error and that you have deleted the tweets so that more people are not misguided. If you don't, you are only reducing your stature. I sincerely hope that you will make amends for your mistake.
Update - After reading this, Ms. Kavita Krishnan took time out of her schedule to block me on Twitter. Wish she had used that time to tweet a small, but significant, apology to Baba Ramdev and her followers. I had sincerely expected her to do so.
Update - After reading this, Ms. Kavita Krishnan took time out of her schedule to block me on Twitter. Wish she had used that time to tweet a small, but significant, apology to Baba Ramdev and her followers. I had sincerely expected her to do so.
