Shiv Sena slams Centre for ‘regressive’ views on women officers in Indian Army

Continuing its attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre, Shiv Sena on Wednesday (February 19) slammed the Centre for refusing to treat women officers in Indian Army on par with male officers.

Shiv Sena, in its editorial mouthpiece Saamana, lauded the Supreme Court decision judgment granting permanent commission to women officers and asserted that it is wrong to discriminate between man and woman when it comes to valour and sacrifice.

"The SC decision has shocked the government which had said that women won't be given command posting as enemy nations could take advantage of it. It had also questioned whether women would be able to do such hard task. This is the real attitude of the government which talks of progressiveness," wrote the Sena editorial.

Shiv Sena also reminded the BJP that it must not forget that India won the 1971 war against Pakistan when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of India and it is high time that the government must change its mindset. "The government needs to change its thought process. Indira Gandhi was a PM and under her leadership, we won the Indo-Pak war of 1971," the Sena said in Saamana.

"In hard words, it could be said that the government has gone mad. One day, women will become chief of the armed forces as well," the Saamana editorial noted.

In a landmark verdict on Monday (February 17), the apex court had allowed the permanent commission to all women officers in the Army, making it clear that women officers should get command postings and they must be treated on par with male counterparts in promotions, ranks, benefits and pensions.

"To cast aspersion on their abilities on the ground of gender is an affront not only to their dignity as women but to the dignity of the members of the Indian Army - men and women - who serve as equal citizens in a common mission," a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi had said.

"The submissions advanced in the note tendered to this Court are based on sex stereotypes premised on assumptions about socially ascribed roles of gender which discriminate against women," it added.