New Delhi, April 18 -- Azam Khan of the Samajwadi Party has been barred from campaigning for three days by the Election Commission (EC) for making offensive remarks about the Bharatiya Janata Party's Jaya Prada. This is one of the few times that the poll panel has taken action against a politician for making misogynistic statements. The scrutiny of what is spoken along the election trail seems far more stringent in North India than in the South, where the language used is far from exemplary: Public utterances are usually misogynistic, patriarchal and suggestive in nature. In the south, politicians seem to recognize that derogatory words on caste and religion will not earn votes, but disparaging women somehow goes uncondemned. Women leaders are often dismissed as "actors" and "dancers", or referred to as somebody's wife or mistress, no matter how independent they are. Old, irrelevant and morphed pictures are circulated. A candidate's background in cinema or theatre is blatantly used to diminish her achievements....