The State government on Sunday denounced self-styled student counsellor and government college teacher Rajith Kumar for his “misogynist and gender insensitive” messages to society.
Minister for Health and Social Welfare K.K. Shylaja said the State would initiate legal action against him and keep him away from government programmes.
Rajith Kumar had cast himself in the centre of a controversy last week after having allegedly opined on live television that women sporting ‘men’s wear’ risked giving birth to transgender children. He also allegedly linked autism and cerebral palsy in children to parents who were rebellious and nonconformist in dress code and social conduct.
The Minister said Rajith Kumar’s words and actions spread superstition and social discord. The government would initiate defamatory action against him.
Ms. Shylaja pointed out that other participants in the discussion had unanimously pointed out that his statements were heartless, cruel, and insulting to society.
However, Rajith Kumar had refused to recant his views. (Former Planning Board member G. Vijayaraghavan, who was on the show as a panellist, had said he would not share a public platform with Rajith Kumar till he withdrew his comments.)
The Minister said that Rajith Kumar’s disparaging views on women had caused much outrage at a function he attended at Government Women’s College, Thiruvananthapuram, a few years ago. Later at a public function in Kasaragod, Rajith Kumar had held parents of autistic children responsible for the plight of the wards and said their issues were the wages of their sins, Ms. Shylaja noted.
