In an incident that took place on International Women’s Day on March 8, a BJP Member of Parliament from Karnataka was caught on camera pulling up a woman for not wearing a bindi on her forehead.
S. Muniswamy, MP from Kolar, was going around an exhibition in Kolar that he had inaugurated to mark International Women’s Day when pulled up a woman in a shop for not wearing a bindi.
He is heard chastising the woman. “Wear a bindi first. Your husband is alive, isn’t he? Do you have no common sense?”
A bunch of men accompanying the MP are seen agreeing with him and joining him in pulling up the woman.
The video of the incident has drawn the ire of political parties, women activists and others on social media platforms, with many pointing to the irony of the incident taking place at an International Women’s Day event.
Opposition Congress, which condemned the MP’s actions, said such incidents ‘reflect the culture’ of the BJP. Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram, tweeted: “The @BJP4India will turn India into a “Hindutva Iran”. The Ayatollahs of the BJP will have their version of the “Moral Police” patrolling the streets.”
Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, a women’s rights group, held a protest in Kolar against ‘blatant patriarchy of the MP and retrograde attitude of the BJP’, on March 9, 2023.
On March 9, Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, a women’s rights group, held a protest in Kolar against ‘blatant patriarchy of the MP and retrograde attitude of the BJP’.
