Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul who were recently on the latest episode of Koffee With Karan, a celebrity chat-show, have brought on the anger of the entire country on them.

Pandya and Rahul both Indian cricketers, were the first sportsmen hosted on the show, and while cricket fans were eagerly waiting for it, the episode came under fire for Pandya’s sexist and misogynistic statements.

Some of what Pandya said included how he had bragged to his parents about losing his virginity. He said that, “When I lost my virginity, I came home and said, ‘Main karke aya hai aaj (I had sex today)’.”

And then he revealed how his parents were so cool and that, “At a party my parents asked me ‘acha tera wala (women) kaun sa hai [who is your interest here?] so I said yeh, yeh, yeh (pointing out women)’ and they were like ‘waah proud of you beta’.”

When Karan Johar asked them what happens if they like the same girl, Rahul gave the simple answer of “Ya upto the woman,” but Pandya intervened and said that “Nahi nahi aisa kuch nahi hai, talent pe hota hai. Jiso mila woh leke jao.”

Besides that his brashness and sexism could be seen in instances where he talked about using a pun on his name with ‘hard dick always’ as pick-up lines, using the same messages with females to the point where they asked his friend Rahul to tell Pandya to at least change his messages.

After the social media bashing began, several online media houses also talked about his statements and how they were extremely concerning.

What Was The Bashing That Hardik Pandya Got?

As soon as the episode aired, social media was buzzing with what Pandya specifically said with some showing their discomfort while others called him out on his remarks.

https://twitter.com/FeistyFangirlx/status/1081926499114995712

https://twitter.com/harshits009/status/1081969195363913728

Media Gave Their Opinion Too

This prompted online bloggers of various known media houses to wake up and actually opinionate on this topic.

Firstpost talked about how the ‘boys will be boys’ mentality can be dangerous:

Arre’ did a piece where they observed the increasing vulgarity within cricket and how it was moving away from being a ‘Gentleman’s game’:

Pinkvilla also called out Pandya on his statements:

Read More: Was Army Chief Bipin Rawat Sexist In Not Wanting Women In Combat Roles Or Is It A Practical Issue?

But there were also some leading youth influencers who first portrayed the whole episode in a positive way but later changed their stance on the topic, quite hypocritically. 

Buzzfeed, first published their standard top moments from something article with this heading.

They later changed it to the more appropriate title, replacing ‘hilarious’ with ‘notable’.

It is interesting how after 2 days when they saw that there was an uproar, they conveniently changed their stance and wrote the piece in a way that is more appropriate with how the social media was feeling.

BCCI after seeing the uproar on social media and understanding that it could have a negative impact on the cricket team and the organisation as a whole, probably decided to take action against Pandya.

The Board issued a showcause notice to both Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul, with Vinod Rai, the Chairman of the Committee of Administrators (COA) being quoted by PTI stating, “We have sent showcause notices to Hardik Pandya and K L Rahul for their comments. They have been given 24 hours to give an explanation.”

Apparently, the Board might decide to prohibit cricketers from appearing on shows that have no relation to cricket. PTI also reported a BCCI source saying that, “It will be considered whether players should even be allowed to appear on such shows which have got nothing to do with cricket.”

After he got the notice, Pandya posted an apology on his Twitter:

But it seems this was not enough with some people pointing out how conveniently he laid all the blame on the format of the show instead of apologising for his own comments.

Even after he apologised, BCCI has not accepted it completely with the Board sitting down to view the episode in its entirety today and thereafter deciding on what punishment will be given to the accused.

Hindustan Times quoted a senior BCCI official saying that, “This attempt at an apology does in no way bring the issue to closure. This merely shows how lightly he takes the gravely serious issue of respecting women. His conduct was unacceptable. He needs to understand the impact the utterances of an international cricketer have in this country but more importantly, he needs to learn how to differentiate between the right and the wrong. Right now he seems to merely respond to the outrage and not to his own thought process and conduct.”

Pandya has always been celebrated for his excellent skills on the cricket field, and people literally worship him in some cases. But this just went to show how nobody is exempt from the consequences of their actions.

Celebrity, beloved cricketer, politician, it does not matter who is who, on social media, everyone is held at an equal footing. And if a public personality is saying something that can encourage the wrong behaviour, then no matter how many millions of fans they have, they will be called out to rectify their behaviour.

We applaud those who called out Hardik Pandya’s bullshit and forced him to get off his high horse to understand the importance of social behaviour.

Being an as****e is not cool, Mr. Pandya!

Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: Hindustan Times, India Today, Times Now 

Find the blogger at: @chirali_08

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