Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh's remark that if women belonging to affluent families (industrialists and bureaucrats) were elected MPs they would be “whistled” at by young boys has drawn flak from the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The SP chief made this comment, reiterating his opposition to the Women's Reservation Bill, at a party function held to mark Ram Manohar Lohia's birth centenary here on Tuesday.
In a press release here, Uttar Pradesh BSP president Swamy Prasad Maurya said the “childish” remark provided an insight into why crime against women had increased during the SP regime in the State. The comment should not have come from a former Chief Minister.
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Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesman Subodh Srivastava said Mr. Singh's remark should be consigned to the dustbin. The SP president invoked Ram Manohar Lohia, but he forgot that the socialist leader always favoured equal respect for women. The Congress demanded an apology from Mr. Singh.
Uncalled for: BJP
BJP State spokesman Hridya Narain Dixit said the remark, made at a function to mark the birth centenary of the socialist ideologue, was uncalled for, as Lohia stood for equality of women.
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Shocking: AIDWA
New Delhi Special Correspondent writes:
Condemning Mr. Mulayam Singh's statement, the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) said: “This is the most objectionable example of patriarchal and uncivilised thinking that seeks to insult women in public life and negate the tremendous contributions that they have made. It also seeks to trivialise sexual harassment of women. That a senior political leader who has held high office both in his State and at the Centre can stoop to comments of this kind is truly shocking.”
It was interesting that at the end of his tirade against giving women the right to public representation, Mr. Singh condescended to say that he would be willing to accept a mandatory reservation of 15 per cent for women candidates in party lists. This made a mockery of his oft-repeated concern for poor women, OBC and Muslim women for whom, of course, there would be no quotas in this kind of reservation, an AIDWA statement said.
The truth of the matter was that Mr. Singh and others like them have absolutely no interest in women belonging to the poor and deprived sections becoming public representatives.
“They are only interested in protecting their own personal political interests and in strengthening patriarchal norms and gender biases.”
Dont's insult women, says Congress
The Congress reacted strongly to Mr. Singh's remarks, saying that if he could not give reservation to women, he should not insult them.