M.P. Minister on Vijayvargiya remarks: ‘Women should wear decent clothes in public places‘

Backing her party colleague Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is facing criticism for his remarks comparing “badly dressed” women to the mythological character Shurpanakha, Madhya Pradesh Minister Usha Thakur on Saturday said that one should wear decent clothes in public places so that “wrongful thoughts do not arise in anyone’s mind”. 

Backing her party colleague Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is facing criticism for his remarks comparing “badly dressed” women to the mythological character Shurpanakha, Madhya Pradesh Minister Usha Thakur on Saturday said that one should wear decent clothes in public places so that “wrongful thoughts do not arise in anyone’s mind”. 

Responding to a question on the statement made by Mr. Vijayvargiya on women’s attire, Ms. Thakur, who holds the Culture portfolio in M.P.’s BJP government, also decried the “growing influence of Western culture” in the society. 

“If you pick up the Vedas and read them, it guides us about our clothes, our lifestyle, our food and what should be our daily routine. Our clothes should be so decent and so civilized that when we are in public places no wrongful thought ever arises in the mind of anyone seeing us,” she said.  

Ms. Thakur further said that “demonic tendencies start appearing in those not following Vedic Satya Sanatan traditions”. Shurpanakha, whom Mr. Vijayvargiya, referred to earlier, is the sister of demon king Ravana according to the Hindu epic Ramayana. 

“We see goddess in women. But (with) the kind of bad clothes the girls wear and move around, they do not embody goddess but look like Shurpanakha. God has given you good and beautiful body..... dress well, friends,” Mr. Vijayvargiya had said at a religious event in Indore on Wednesday. A video of the event has been doing the rounds since Friday evening. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Vijayvargiya continued to draw flak over his statement, with former Chief Minister Kamal Nath calling the comments shameful. Referring to the senior BJP leader’s statement and recent attacks on women in the BJP-ruled State, he said the BJP “had vowed to insult and harass women”. 

“In the last 18 years of [CM] Shivraj [Singh Chouhan] ji’s government, the State has become number one in the whole country in terms of women harassment. Insulting women, harassing them and making objectionable comments about them is becoming the identity of the BJP,” tweeted Mr. Nath. Piyush Babele, media advisor to M.P. Congress, said that “ Ladli Behna” (a new scheme to provide cash assistance to women launched by Mr. Chouhan’s government), was hypocrisy when party leaders were making adverse comments about women.