Poor poor guy...I feel sorry for him.
A columnist or a novelist or any writer for that matter need not write to please everyone. There is a section in the society who's still tender at heart, loves to be loved and doesn't nickpick points of argument in every statement that comes out innocently or deliberately out of the planent Mars's inhabitants.
If shashi said something about sari, it was never to demean the integrity of Indian women, but I know there exists a group ready with banners all the time, and I know their banners are very effective and much required but hey...not everywhere.