The unbecoming of Bihar CM

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not cover himself with glory when he forcibly pulled down the veil of a Muslim woman doctor who had stepped forward to receive her appointment letter from him.

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The woman was wearing a niqab. Kumar asked her to show her face, but before she could even respond, he stretched out his hand and removed the veil himself. In that single, thoughtless gesture, he crossed a line no man has the right to cross-least of all a Chief Minister on a public stage. What followed made the incident even more disturbing. The act amounted to a public affront to the woman's dignity, performed before an audience of men who smiled indulgently instead of objecting. This was not a private lapse of judgement; it was an assertion of power over a woman's body and choice, played out under the glare of cameras. The symbolism could not have been uglier.