Smriti Irani's 'Miss India' Video Spawns Trinamool-BJP Twitter Clash

A video of Union Minister Smriti Irani from the 1998 edition of the Miss India beauty pageant found its way into an online debate over the movie 'Pathaan' on Friday, setting off a duel between leaders of the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.

Amid the controversy over Deepika Padukone's orange bikini in one of the songs in the movie, Trinamool Congress leader Riju Dutta responded to a tweet by the BJP's Amit Malviya with a video of Ms Irani from the swimsuit round of the contest.

The tweet upset the BJP MP Locket Chatterjee, who accused Mr Dutta of "misogyny".

The Trinamool Congress leader, however, hit back, reminding how leaders of the BJP have defended rapists of 2002 Gujarat riots victim Bilkis Bano as "sanskari brahmins".

The exchange come amid attacks on the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Pathaan' by right-wing social media users backed by some leaders of the BJP, which governs at the centre - in the second such vitriolic campaign this year against a Muslim movie star after Aamir Khan's 'Laal Singh Chaddha' earlier.

Among those who have targeted the movie are Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra of the BJP, who claimed one of the songs in the film showed a "contaminated mindset" and threatened to block its release in the state.

Central to the controversy around 'Pathaan' is an allegation that in the song 'Besharam Rang' (Shameless Colour), actor Deepika Padukone wears an orange outfit which, according to its detractors, resembles the saffron that is sacred in Hinduism and is the main colour of the BJP.

Smriti Irani's swimsuit video has been cited by many as one of the demonstrations of the double standards of those criticising Deepika Padukone's bikini.

Campaigns based on such flimsy excuses against Mr Khan and those of his colleagues who are not seen as unabashed supporters of the ruling party have grown in recent years, threatening the country's vast film industry.