Keeping up with UP: The callous targeting of two women officers

In an emotional FB post, former IPS officer and UP minister Asim Arun comes out in support of the women officers

A student of the Government Girls’ Degree College once told me how she wants to join the armed forces despite opposition from her family. “I want to join the armed forces, but my parents are not allowing me to do so as they worry what relatives and society would say,” she said. That day, I told her to rebel and compel her parents to let “you join the armed forces as the day you will wear the uniform; the same opinionated relatives would salute you.”

Colonel Sofiya Qureshi. (X/@SpokespersonMoD)

I was reminded of this conversation as two brave women in uniform face disparaging comments and discussions about their caste and religion, and not of their valour. Hopefully, it would not dissuade young girls who want to make a career in defence.

On International Women’s Day on March 8, defence minister Rajnath Singh spoke about the government’s commitment to the vision of gender-inclusive armed forces, encouraging more young women to aspire for careers in defence.

What the Madhya Pradesh minister Vijay Shah said about Colonel Sofiya Qureshi is unpardonable, questioning her ‘deshbhakti’ (patriotism) and the fact that she had vowed to eliminate the terrorists, with whom he had the audacity to connect her.

Perhaps the government and the BJP high command should have acted with alacrity to prevent their leaders from making such comments.

And then the Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, apparently attempting to condemn the minister, committed a blunder by mentioning the caste of the other officer. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath quickly condemned Gopal for his casteist comment.

As a ray of hope has come an emotional Facebook post of a UP minister, Asim Arun, who was in the police service before joining politics. Supporting the officers, the minister wrote: “Jai Hindi , neither Adab, nor Jai Mata Di, nor anything else, Only Jai Hindi. When we wear uniform, our only identity left is ‘ Indian’, no caste, religion, state or anything else. But some of our leaders do not have this simple understanding as they watch your religion or caste. We fight as a group, as an identity, as a country. Leaders who look at you with glasses of caste and religion are being condemned and I also condemn them.”

Thereafter he wrote about how on January 8, 2022 when he decided to enter politics, he had made a promise to always stand in the forefront to protect the honour of the uniform. Adding that he doesn’t care who would get angry, he demanded legal action against the two leaders, the MP minister and Yadav.

Party high commands should ponder over the comments made by the two leaders. The MP minister’s comment is clearly antithetical to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurance to assuage the grief of the family members, including young widows, of 26 people gunned down by terrorists in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025.

In its bid to send a message to the grieving widows in particular and women in general, the government chose to name its military action “Operation Sindoor”. The government brought to the fore two brave women officers -- Colonel Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh with an intent to instill confidence in women. Modi in his address after the ceasefire said he dedicated the heroism of the armed forces to every mother, sister and daughter of the country.

Surprisingly, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi who ran the campaign, “Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon” during the 2022 UP assembly polls failed to vociferously condemn the act.

Surely, in politics, caste is flaunted. But not always in other professions.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national president Mayawati used to call herself “Dalit ki Beti, Jatav ki Beti” at public rallies as it helped her garner sympathy and support. But former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, daughter of the country’s tallest Dalit leader, Jagjivan Ram, never identified herself as Dalit. She always spoke about herself as a woman, not even a Dalit woman. Even after she became the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar, a former diplomat, had described it as an achievement for women.

While women are taking giant strides in every field despite such roadblocks, the real battle is about changing the mindsets in which the political parties should also come forward with a plan. Perhaps, RSS with its vast cadre can play a pivotal role in bringing this transformation.

I recall how late prime minister Indira Gandhi had objected to the use of the commonly used complimentary phrase, “she is the only man in her cabinet”. She had then said, as mentioned by her secretary PC Alexander in his opinion piece in the National Herald dated October 31, 2022, “Indira Gandhi heartily disliked the sexist slant in this tribute. She once told me that statements like this revealed the arrogance in the thinking of some men that courage and excellence are the monopoly of men. If a woman showed such qualities, she had to be described as a man and if a man displayed lack of such qualities he had to be described as a woman. She strongly resented the condescending superiority complex underlying such statements. She told me that the worst example of the sexist superiority complex in India was the practice of making mock presents of glass bangles to political leaders as a gesture of insult.”

A lot needs to change before we, as a country, celebrate the empowerment of women.