Current affairs

'Reject BJP's H Raja': Open letter to the voters... What's in it and how it shocked the BJP?

By alagu, 31 March, 2021
BJP, ADMK, Tamil Nadu Elections, Tamilnadu

Exactly a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Tamil Nadu to seek the votes for BJP candidates during which he attacked the DMK and Congress for insulting women, a group of feminists from Tamil Nadu has written an open letter to the voters of Karaikudi to reject BJP's candidate H Raja in the polls for his anti-women remarks and the letter was being penned on how BJP treats women across the country.

BJP's H Raja, who is one of the controversial figures in Tamil Nadu, is contesting in the Karaikudi constituency in the upcoming assembly polls. While the state is a week ahead of the polls, H Raja had shocked to learn that a group of feminists had marched against him and straightly reached to the Karaikudi voters to reject him. The letter has listed out the anti-women remarks that were made by H Raja. The letter has come at a high time when H Raja has been calling out to Tamil Nadu voters to reject the DMK due to the comments made by DMK MP A Raja while campaigning in Chennai.  

DMK's Raja had compared the births of DMK President MK Stalin and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and the DMK MP was accused of making derogatory remarks about Palaniswami's mother following which the DMK was surfaced with massive flak and Raja was demanded to place his apology to the Chief Minister. The ADMK and BJP leaders including H Raja had slammed A Raja and appealed to the voters to reject the DMK and to remove him from the party. 

A Raja had later issued an apology for the statement. He offered his regret on Monday and two days after his regret, BJP's H Raja has now been pushed for a rewind of his anti-women remarks by a group of feminists. According to reports, the letter was penned by notable women authors, journalists, political leaders, and professors including Grace Banu, Meena Kandasamy, Salma, Kavitha Gajendran, Kavitha Muralidharan, Kavin Malar, and Malathi Maithri.

In the letter, the feminists said, "We believe that for women's freedom to become a reality, a social change must begin in the political arena. Former Union Minister and DMK leader A. Raja has openly apologized for some of the distasteful remarks made by him which generated a great deal of controversy. Using this ruse, BJP leader H. Raja, contesting in your constituency, has said, “If the DMK is a party that respects women, then A. Raja must be removed from the party.’ Before we debate whether there are justified grounds for such a demand, we have to look at whether H. Raja has any moral right to make such a demand". 

They had further penned, "We can establish with through a lot of instances and evidence that the BJP is a party with extremely conservative views on women. It is well-known that the BJP has shown little concern for women, from Asifa in Kashmir to violence against young women in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu." The feminists had listed out some of the misogynist statements on women and said that H Raja had in 2018 tweeted that DMK MP Kanimozhi was an illegitimate child of an illegitimate relationship. 

In what would become distributing events to H Raja, the feminists had also said that the BJP's candidate had referred to Poet Vairamuthu as the son of a dasi. H Raja has spoken disparagingly of women, especially women who are in public life, in addition to supporting other members of his party get away with such vile, hate speech. In a media debate, when BJP leader Karu Nagarajan insulted Congress MP Jothimani, the first voice in support of him came from H Raja.

The feminists added, "The simple question we would like to ask you, the voters of Karaikudi, is, H Raja says that the Chief Minister's mother is a woman, and she has been insulted. If this is the case, who gave H Raja the power to humiliate Rahul-Priyanka Gandhi’s mother and Vairamuthu’s mother? Who gave him the permission to insult Kanimozhi? Who gave him the power to humiliate the women family members of thousands of HR&CE workers?"

They further said that BJP's H Raja, who preaches that the DMK should glorify women, is someone who very routinely degrades and vilifies women, and stands in support of those who insult women. They asked the Karaikudi voters, "Are you going to vote for this man?". The letter concludes by addressing the Karaikudi voters, "He (H Raja) is coming to you, asking you to vote for him! Reject him. Give him a fitting answer on behalf of the women of Tamil Nadu". 

Professor Meena Kandasamy had released the letter on Twitter and it has been getting widely shared across social media, putting the BJP under fresh trouble. The feminists had created an online form and appealed to every woman to sign the form to add the signatures. Meena Kandasamy said, "If you agree with the contents of our letter and if you identify as a woman, please do add your signatures on this form". The letter has come a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke in a way that BJP and ADMK parties are working for the betterment of women and that DMK and Congress have been insulting women. 
 

 

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