If the reactions of women in Tamil Nadu over the comments made by Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav in Parliament are any indication, he has become the most unpopular politician in the State.
“His comments on south Indian women are racial to the core. It shows how perverted Sharad Yadav is,” said Tamilissai Soundararajan, president, Tamil Nadu BJP. Soundararajan, usually guarded and restrained on her comments, sounded upset and hurt over the description of south Indian women by the Janata Dal leader.
Yadav may not be able to make it to Tamil Nadu unless he expresses regret over his comments, said the BJP leader. “He will not be welcomed in Tamil Nadu till he expresses his regret. Till then he may have to bear the stigma that he is a male chauvinist,” she added.
Radha Rajan, noted social activist and political commentator, said this was not the first time Yadav made such deplorable anti-women comments. “During a debate on the Women’s Reservation Bill he made the bizarre observation that only bal katiwali mahilayen or women with cropped hair will enter Parliament, quite forgetting Mayawati sported short hair,” she said.
Rajan, who is the author of India’s first book on the functioning of the NGOs in the country, said she was appalled by the unwillingness of all men, without exception, in Parliament to stand up against Sharad Yadav and demand an unconditional apology failing which the House should have taken stern and deterrent measures against the JD(U) MP.
“But it speaks volumes for politics of expediency that even the ruling party would rather brush Sharad Yadav and his foul mouth under Parliament carpet instead of taking a principled stand against such anti-women, sexist remarks,” said Rajan who also took strong exception of the attitude of the MP towards Union Minister Smriti Irani, who pleaded with him not to make such comments in future.
Prof N Manimekalai, director and head, department of women studies, Bharatidasan University, Tiruchirapalli said the only soft word she could use to describe the Janata Dal leader’s comment is “It is highly intolerable”. She also said that women in India are unsafe because of attitudes of politicians like Yadav.