Kiren Rijiju writes to Jaya Bachchan, regrets for ‘answer'

NEW DELHI: To handle law and order, men in uniform were thought to be more preferable. Also, women have to balance professional and familial obligations.

Such 'politically incorrect' statements from the Home Ministry in a Parliament answer in July offended the Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan. So much so that the Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, had to recently write an official letter to Bachchan, saying the ministry held women “in high esteem” and was very much “gender sensitive”.

This was after an infuriated Bachchan complained that the comments in the answer had offended gender sentiments. Rijiju wrote to her, regretting it was not the intention. Jaya had asked a question in Parliament regarding the reasons for inadequate number of women in the police forces. “Traditionally women had not been inducted into the police force as it was thought that to maintain law and order, men were more preferable,” the written reply given by Rijiju on July 30 said.