Differences within The Times of India over Bombay Times' editorial on Deepika Padukone

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The News Minute | September 22, 2014 | 05:45 pm IST There seems to be no end to The Times of India (TOI)-Deepika Padukone battle that has been going on around for over a week now. However, this time there seems to be discontent brewing within the media organisation itself. Less than 24 hours after TOI published an elaborate piece titled Dear Deepika, Our Point of View…, in response to a Facebook a post that the actor published last Friday, some members from within TOI have retaliated criticising that very editorial. Dear Deepika…, was published by the Bombay edition of The Times of India in the early hours of Monday. The piece accuses Padukone of hypocrisy. Part of the piece reads, " Deepika, we accept your reel vs real argument, but what about all the times, and there have been many, when you have flaunted your body off screen — while dancing on stage, posing for magazine covers, or doing photo ops at movie promotional functions? What 'role' do you play there? So why the hypocrisy?" Read: Times of India takes the fight with Deepika Padukone to a new level, accuses actress of hypocrisy in its reply However, this article by Bombay Times has not gone down well with others in the organisation. An e-mail which was being circulated internally before it was reportedly sent to Editorial Director Jaideep Bose and Executive Editor Arindam Sengupta, on behalf of some reporters in Delhi takes strong objection to the editorial. The email reportedly sent on behalf of some in The Times of India's reporting team in Delhi says, "We never felt the need to interject earlier when the photograph was published and thought TOI would handle the matter sensitively. But now a lot of us have felt the TOI rebuttal goes against the very liberal and progressive values the group stands for." The senders of the mail say they have severe problems with the 'content of the article written by Priya Gupta'. The mail then lists out various 'parts' of the The Times of India's article titled Dear Deepika, our point of view. In the email, employees asks TOI's Executive Editor Arindam Sengupta if the paper is saying that Deepika asked for it. "After taking a stand so many times for women’s rights, this is an appalling position to take," says the mail. TOI's decision to defend its headline- OMG- Watch Deepika's cleavage show' has also been slammed by the Delhi team. The mail says, "As we all are aware, anything printed under the TOI banner—headline or article-- becomes the Newspaper’s responsibility. After being caught on the wrong foot with the caption, which was definitely not complimentary as the website had later claimed, this is the most lame excuse we could putting out." In the editorial published against Deepika, TOI describes her as someone who began her career as a 'calendar girl' for a liquor brand. Reacting to this, the Delhi team asks ,"”Whats wrong with being a ‘calender girl’ ? And this after claiming that we are against moral policing, the statement smacks of not just double standards but a highly regressive and repulsive attitude towards women who are struggling to beat stereotypes." The mail ends quoting another paragraph from the article that said, “Despite having made your point on Twitter, you have chosen to re-tweet every message and given as many interviews as you could. This has obviously been great publicity for you, timed perfectly with the release of your new film." The mail says, "”This is an extremely personal attack and attempts to show that a public face like Padukone has absolutely no business feeling offended at the crass remarks being made and could only use the situation to her advantage. The article is insulting not just to Padukone but to women in general. Irrespective of who Deepika is, what she stands for or what she does, today's article was particularly in poor taste."

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