'Better than ripped brains': Women netizens pose in ripped jeans; tear into Uttarakhand CM

Since Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat stoked controversy by saying “ripped jeans pave the way for societal breakdown and is a bad example parents set for children,” women have started posting images of themselves wearing the torn jeans. Hundreds of women, celebrities, influencers took to social media voicing their disagreement with Uttarakhand CM’s remarks made at the workshop organised by the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in Dehradun on Tuesday. Under #RippedJeansTwitter women questioned how it is a “bad example”. 

“Showing bare knees by wearing ripped jeans just to look like rich kids is the value given now which is just a race towards westernisation when the Western world today is following us. Ripped jeans pave the way for societal breakdown and is a bad example parents set for children,” he had said opining that women and girls wearing ripped jeans do not provide the ‘right environment’ at home for children. However, internet users shared their pictures saying that ‘clothes do not determine the character.’

Rawat recalls conversation with a woman running NGO

“While the western world follows us, doing yoga … covering their body properly. And we run towards nudity,” Uttarakhand CM said. During the workshop on March 16, Rawat also recalled his conversation with a woman on a flight who used to run a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and expressed his distaste for women wearing ripped jeans. Further hitting out at the sartorial choices of women, Rawat elaborated on the incident involving the woman running an NGO and raised concerns over the kind of ‘message’ she was putting out to the world by wearing the torn jeans.

Rawat said, “If this kind of woman goes out in the society to meet people and solve their problems, what kind of message are we giving out to society, to our kids? It all starts at home. What we do, our kids follow. A child who is taught the right culture at home, no matter how modern he becomes, will never fail in life.”