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‘To all women of Karnataka…’: Congress’ DK Shivakumar issues apology over MLA’s rape remark
Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar said men in politics should take the incident as a “sign” and need to work towards shedding such regressive views on women.
Congress’ Karnataka unit president DK Shivakumar on Friday apologised to women about the remarks made by one of his party legislators KR Ramesh Kumar about rape amid an ongoing furore over the incident inside the state assembly.
Shivakumar promised that he would never let such similar remarks be made again.
“As the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, I am deeply saddened that such words were uttered by a Congress MLA. To all the women of Karnataka, I am sorry and I will ensure words like these are never repeated,” Shivakumar said in a tweet.
He also said that the remarks made by the MLA were against the Congress’ values. “The Congress party condemns the words spoken by one of our own legislators in the Karnataka assembly. The insensitive remarks against women are contrary to the values of gender equality the Congress party champions,” he said.
The senior Congress leader said men in politics should take the incident as a “sign” and need to work towards shedding such regressive views on women.
“While we note that the legislator has tendered an apology, the incident in the assembly is a sign that all of us men in politics need to do better to shed our inherent regressive attitudes towards women,” he added.
The apologies from the state Congress chief came amidst the growing backlash the party has been receiving after a video of the crass comments by Ramesh Kumar garnered widespread attention on social media. Several political leaders from other parties and the public have criticised the MLA for his remarks.
Union minister for women and child development Smriti Irani and National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma were among those who have called out the minister for his words.
Irani said the comments were “shameful” and also demanded the Congress to suspend the MLA. The NCW chief also made a similar comment and said political parties should not field such candidates and people should not vote for them.
On its part, the Congress party went into damage control mode after the flak and has tried to distance itself from the controversial statements. Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the party does not approve of such “insensitive banter” and noted that the speaker and senior legislators should refrain from “such unacceptable behaviour”.
Another senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said an apology was tendered by the MLA and the matter should not be “dragged”. He also conceded that the MLA was himself a two-time speaker and should not have made such remarks.
