Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal on Saturday said she was sexually abused by her father when she was a child. Laying her heart bare at an event in Delhi, Swati Maliwal said she was subjected to sexual assault in her childhood and used to hide under the bed for the entire night as her father used to beat her up. “My father used to hold my braid and hit my head hard against the wall. It kept bleeding,” Swati Maliwal said inviting scrutiny over her remark. A purported tweet of Swati Maliwal dating back to 2016 where she talked about her father was dug up. Congress leader Radhika Khera shared the screenshot and asked whether the accusation of ‘sexual assault’ was because of the Haryana assembly election scheduled to be held in 2023.
“I am the daughter of an Army man. I have been brought up in the Army. I have been taught to work for the country, to sacrifice the life for the country. I am not afraid of anything,” Swati Maliwal purportedly wrote in the 2016 tweet, the screenshot of which is going viral courtesy of the social media attack on Swati Maliwal following her confession.
“In 2016, Swati Maliwal was a proud daughter of an Armyman… and in 2023, her father was a sexual assaulter. Will the real Swati Maliwal please stand up?!?!” BJP’s Priti Gandhi tweeted.
This triggered a debate on social media as many social media users defended Swati Maliwal and argued that the issue is not black and white and that Maliwal wasn’t wrong in feeling proud of her Army family. Attack on Swati Maliwal for speaking up against her father would silence victims, they argued. The DCW chief shared some of those tweets in the wake of the social media controversy.
Swati Maliwal’s former husband, former AAP leader Naveen Jaihind has been dragged into the controversy to which he said he wanted to stay away from the ‘gutter’.