The National Commission of Women wrote a letter to the Election Commission demanding immediate and strict action against Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate for a derogatory post on actor Kangana Ranaut's electoral debut.
"National Commission for Women is appalled by the disgraceful conduct of Ms. Supriya Shrinate and Mr. H.S. Ahir, who made lewd and derogatory remarks about @KanganaTeam on social media. Such behavior is intolerable and goes against the dignity of women," said the women's body.
Kangana is contesting the elections on a BJP ticket from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.
Social media posts made from the account of Congress leader started trending showing bold partly top-less pictures of the actress along with objectionable comments.
Sharing a screenshot of the controversial post, Kangana Ranaut highlighted her diverse film roles and posted, "We must free our daughters from the shackles of prejudices, we must rise above the curiosity about their body parts and above all we must refrain from using sex workers challenging lives or circumstances as some kind of abuse or slur… every woman deserves her dignity… ".
Union Minister Smriti Irani came out in support of the actress and said, "This initiation into politics by fire @KanganaTeam is not a reflection on who you are but on what they have done & are capable of continuing to do for they can’t fathom how to deal with women of steel. March onto victory. Vijayi Bhav!"
Amid the uproar, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate issued a video clarification and said she had deleted the "inappropriate posts" that were made from her handle without her knowledge.
"Many people have access to my Facebook and Instagram accounts. Someone from them made an extremely inappropriate post today. As soon as I came to know, I deleted that post. Everyone who knows me, also knows very well that I can never make personal and indecent comments towards any woman," she said.
She blamed a parody account being run with her name which made the "objectionable post". "Someone copied it from there and posted it on my Instagram and Facebook accounts. I am trying to know who has done this from those who have access. I have also reported this parody account to Twitter," added Shrinate.