Singer Palash Sen, who was accused of making sexist jokes at IIT-Bombay's cultural event recently, said in an interview that his comment was taken out of context.
"I can't even believe that somebody can make this into an issue. From what I read in the blog, it was completely taken out of context. There was no honesty in anything that was written. Now, she is a girl; if I say anything, I still end up being branded as sexist. I am just trying to be a gentleman and staying quiet, which is also getting the people talking, I do not know what to say," Sen told radioandmusic.com in an interview published on Monday.
Sen said Arpita Phukan Biswas, the IIT-Bombay student who highlighted the incident in a blogpost and on Facebook, had "another agenda".
"I was fine speaking to her and clarifying whatever there was. It was she who refused to speak to me. I did not even understand what happened," Sen said.
A Facebook and blog post by Biswas describing singer Palash Sen's sexist diatribe at the institute's cultural event sparked off a debate on feminism and misogyny and the right to free speech.
Sen, who is the lead singer of the popular band Euphoria, with many hit numbers featuring women in strong roles, allegedly told the crowd at IIT-B's Mood Indigo "Don't worry guys, you will find the best looking women when you leave this campus. Aur woh tumhaare liye roti belenge (and they will roll rotis for you)."
Sensing that the crowd, that comprised mostly men, was loving it, Sen took what women rejected as a sexist joke a step further. "Women are for beauty, men are for intelligence. You have to agree that men are more intelligent than women, don't you?" wrote Biswas.
She said Sen took the stage and asked "Are there good-looking girls in IIT-B?" to much cheering from the crowd and a handful of boos from the women present.
"Of course, it was just a jest when Euphoria singer Palash Sen commemorated his 15 years of musical euphoria by humiliating women both studying in IIT and outside. The IIT-B boys' fraternity and other men joined in. His slew of sexist barrage began with seemingly the most pressing concern of IIT boys on campus- do boys have enough good looking girls to look at and hit on?" she wrote.
Alok Parande, Euphoria's PR manager, endorsed several Twitter posts by users claiming Sen meant no harm when he joked at the event. In a PR disaster, Parande went ahead and retweeted even more sexist jokes by users.
One such eg.: "@abhishekdied: Are there are any good looking girls on the Internet? *now followed by 17 escort services*"
But the Mood Indigo, IIT Bombay's Facebook page had an official apology up after the event.
"We strongly condemn the remarks of Palash Sen at the concert yesterday. We apologize on our part for the band's remarks. The organizing committee is in the process of deciding further action in the matter," a status update on the page read.
Kamakshi Khanna, a backup vocalist of Euphoria for over two years, wrote in her own Facebook post countering Biswas' and in defence of Sen that she has "not come across a man who is more respectful towards women than him (Sen).
"I come from a background and household that strongly believes in feminism. But, somehow his jokes have never offended me. Does that make me a sexist? No. It doesn't. Those jokes are not meant to be taken seriously. He jokes about it because the idea of women just "beloing rotis" and men pressing their wife's feet is absurd. If he really believed that's what women are destined to do then he would say it as a matter of fact right? Why would he joke about it?"
Khanna said that during her years as a backup vocalist, she was respected and treated like a daughter. "He has encouraged me and nurtured my talent every day of my life. He is like a father to me. Would I really respect him so much if he was sexist?"
Biswas promptly wrote a counter to Khanna's post saying that "Lip service and dedications are far more easier than having to build egalitarianism into your moral fibre. If Palash Sen had done that, then, for jest, he wouldn't have had to play to the gallery of male crowd the way he did. People can joke and laugh about on various other things- but populist sexism is of course the easiest joke available, isn't it?"
"I don't condone censorship, but any freedom comes with a certain responsibility, the very responsibility that Kamakshi Khanna asks me to exercise. And that very sense of responsibility is acutely missing in him. It's one thing to be righteous and harp for equality out of charity because it makes you feel like a person who has the right kind of politics, and quite another thing to nurture your belief and make it as deep seated as an ideology," she wrote.
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