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.”

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........

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