Women Of Khar Gymkhana Say They Would Feel Uncomfortable In Presence Of Hardik Pandya

www.mangaloretoday.com

Jan 17, 2019 - This is not stopping, and why should it? Hardik Pandya is in the dock and should remain so for a long time. A slightly above-average cricketer beat up his chest with his sexist comments on Koffee With Karan 6- and now he is justifiably facing the toughest moment of his life. We last heard that Khar Gymkhana revoked his Honorary Membership and even Mumbai Police inflicted their ire by taking a dig at him (and KL Rahul).

Joint Secretary of Khar Gymkhana, Gaurav Kapadia, had told Times of India yesterday, "We gave him the honorary membership, which we give to sportspersons of national level, because he was doing some rehab in our neighbourhood. In the wake of this controversy — we’ve a social media handle where we have around 4,000 members on Facebook — there was a huge outcry and a lot of members, especially a lot of women members, were upset and felt that the club should take some step. So, we had a managing committee meeting today (Monday) evening, in which we unanimously decided that we’re revoking his honorary membership."

 

 

 

We called up Kapadia this afternoon, who explained what exactly was the sentiment of the women members of Khar Gymkhana. Said Kapadia, "There was a furore on our social media. A lot of ladies felt that if they would be working out at the gym they wouldn’t be comfortable with somebody having such thoughts around, ditto at other places. The voice grew stronger and we called for a meeting (attended by more than 20 people) wherein all members unanimously felt that Hardik’s membership should be revoked."

What still haunts us in this controversy is Hardik’s father Himanshu Pandya’s unflinching support for his son, thereby endorsing his remarks albeit indirectly. Covering up his son, Papa Pandya had told Midday, ’"It was all done to entertain the audience of an entertainment show". Are the days of Sunny Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar really over when cricketers were idolised?  Mr Himanshu was growing up during those days only, na? Who on earth did he idolise?.

We wonder if Hardik is cringing now at least. At least, we are. And yeah, we wonder if he is watching the India vs Australia matches on TV, or only frantically looking out for a magic formula that could rewind the clock back?