Renowned author, philanthropist, and the former chairperson of Infosys Sudha Murthy sparked a controversy when she met Sambhajirao Bhide, a right-wing leader and the founder of Shiv Pratishthan in Sangli, Maharashtra. The Bangalore-based tycoon was in Sangli where she attended an event and visited her childhood house.
Sudha Murthy and Sambhaji Bhide
Visuals of Murthy meeting and bowing down to Bhide are making rounds and it has left many people unhappy.
Who is Sambhaji Bhide?
Before starting his own organisation, Bhide was a full time worker of the RSS
The 89-year-old right-wing leader is the main accused of the Bhima Koregaon violence dating back to January 1, 2018. The caste-based violence left one person dead and several injured.
The violence erupted when people with saffron flags threw stones at the cars heading towards the village for the commemoration of the completion of 200 years of the Bhima-Koregaon war. Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote were accused of the act by Dalit leaders.
Sambhaji Bhide And The ‘Bindi‘ Controversy
Bhide visited the Mantralaya on November 2. While he was walking out, a woman journalist from a local news organisation approached him with a question after which Bhide was seen telling her to apply bindi on her forehead before taking his byte. Bhide refused to talk to the reporter and said that a woman is like “Bharat Mata” and “she should not be like a widow by not applying bindi”.
Interesting. Hope Sudha Murthy was wearing a bindi as she met right wing leader Sambhajirao Bhide. He recently refused to talk to a woman journo for not wearing a bindi https://t.co/TIpyY9FYEw
— Gargi Rawat (@GargiRawat) November 8, 2022
Maharashtra State Women’s Commission served him a notice and demanded an explanation for the statements. “You refused to talk to a woman journalist because she had no bindi on her forehead. A woman is known for the quality of her work. Your statement is demeaning to a woman’s pride and her social stature.” read the notice sent by Rupali Chakankar, President of the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission.
Sambhaji Bhide and Sudha Murthy
Sudha Murthy met the controversial leader days after the ‘Bindi’ controversy erupted, and this meeting has raised several eyebrows. The former chairperson of Infosys is also seen bowing down to the man.
However, there are reports stating that Murthy was “pressurised” to meet Bhide The Sangli event was organised by the Mehta Publishing House. The Editorial head of the house, Yojana Yadav dropped a Facebook post where she claimed that Murthy met the leader at the insistence of the police.
#SudhaMurthy looks perfectly at ease while meeting Bhide Guruji, but some Yojana Yadav writes a fake story about she was pressurised to meet Bhide Guruji, and deletes the post later when her lies are exposed. Predictably, @zoo_bear shares the fake post! pic.twitter.com/D1pyG3MT4Z
— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) November 8, 2022
Yadav wrote that Bhide and his supporters arrived at the event without any invitation and the police requested Murthy to meet Bhide as his supporters were waiting outside the auditorium.
“The pressure was so much that a visibly annoyed Sudha Murthy had to discontinue her interaction with her readers and went out to meet Bhide. She was not aware of who Bhide was, so she asked me his age. She bowed before him out of respect accorded to elders. She later told me that Bhide wanted to speak to her for one and a half hours but she told him that she did not have more than one and a half minutes for him,” Yadav told PTI.
Here is what Yojana Yadav has to say about Bhide meeting Sudha Murthy. pic.twitter.com/Q1dal2lSIq
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) November 8, 2022
