Mumbai: A function organised here on Thursday by the Jain community to felicitate Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for banning beef in Maharashtra kicked up a row after the organisers forced a woman journalist to vacate her seat in the first row and sit in the back so as not to offend the saints who follow celibacy.

Rashmi Puranik, a journalist with a Marathi news channel, said the organisers of the function, held at the Swaminarayan Temple at Dadar, asked her to vacate her seat in the first row, in front of the dais that Mr. Fadnavis shared with the Jain saints. After she complained to BJP Mumbai president Ashish Shelar, he asked her to sit in the first row. However, the organisers asked her again to shift to the back.

After the news spread and Mr. Fadnavis was criticised for not speaking up against the incident, he had to raise the issue in his speech. “We are in the 21st century. All practices that discriminate against women should be stopped. A society progresses only when women get due respect,” he said.

Shree Santacruz Jain Tapagachh Sangh, which organised the function, issued a statement, claiming that it had merely asked the reporter to sit in a separate row meant for women, and the Jain community did not discriminate on the basis of gender.