Men scared to talk to women nowadays: Farooq Abdullah

National Conference chief and Union minister Farooq Abdullah on Friday triggered a fresh row by commenting that situation in the society is so bad that he is afraid of speaking to women these days.

"I'm scared to talk to a woman these days. I don't even want to keep a female secretary, who knows, I might end up in jail because of a complaint. No, I'm not blaming the girls, I'm blaming society itself," Abdullah told media here while reacting to the sexual harassment allegations against retired Supreme Court Justice AK Ganguly.

"The society has reached this point where now after one direction, it's putting pressure on everyone," he added.

Reacting to his comment, BJP leader Smriti Irani said, "It is a very very demeaning comment by such a senior political leader."

The intern's allegations against Justice Ganguly created a media furor with female lawyers and activists calling for the country's top court to investigate the incident.

A committee of three judges of the Supreme Court has indicted Ganguly for 'unwelcome behaviour' and 'conduct of sexual nature' towards a woman law intern, prompting demands that action under criminal law should be initiated against him.

It is the first time that the Supreme Court has set up an internal inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against a former judge.