Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister country and Vijayan on Monday alleged that women and certain religious minorities were not safe under BJP rule in the country and accused the Sangh Parivar of creating a patriarchal and male-dominated mindset in the society.
Speaking at a rally on the concluding day of the All India Democratic Women’s Association’s (AIDWA) 13th national conference here, Vijayan alleged that in various parts of the country, religious institutions, places of worship and people belonging to certain religious minorities were being attacked by Sangh Parivar activists and the Centre was turning a blind eye to it.
Lashing out at the BJP-ruled Centre, he alleged that its stand towards certain religious minorities was creating fear among members of those communities.
One example of the same was the Centre’s announcement that it would be implementing the amended Citizenship Act, Vijayan said.
He further alleged that the RSS and its late leader M S Golwalkar’s stand towards certain religious minorities was similar to that of Nazi-ruler Hitler’s approach against Jews during the Second World War.
Vijayan further claimed that the approach, towards women, of the Sangh Parivar and the ruling BJP at the Centre was clear from how the accused in the Bilkis Bano and Kathua rape case were treated by them.
“Their conduct showed that anything can be done to women without any consequences for such actions,” the Kerala Chief Minister contended.
“It also indicates a patriarchal and male dominated society mindset,” he added.
Vijayan also alleged that there was a prevalence, among a section of society, of “victim shaming” women who have faced sexual assaults.
Such persons say that the clothes worn by the victims, the time when the incident occurred, the place where it happened or the company she was keeping, invited such assaults against them, Vijayan said.
“All these are attempts by a section of society to subjugate women,” he said.
He said that women were also the first to fall prey to superstitions and black magic rituals which some people are deliberately trying to bring back, even in Kerala where such practices were discarded long back.
“Unfortunately women are the first to fall prey to these wrong practices,” he said in apparent reference to the Elanthoor human sacrifice case where two women were brutally killed as part of a black magic ritual.
Another unfortunate side of the same issue was that some women also encourage such activities, he said.
In the Elanthoor case, one of the three accused is a woman who not only allegedly killed the victims, but also indulged in cannibalism according to the police.
The Chief Minister also urged the people to strongly oppose the alleged divisive actions of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP-ruled Centre, victim shaming of women and the bid to bring back superstitions.
At the event, he also spoke about the public welfare schemes of the Left government and claimed that the Centre was not taking any such measures.
At the conference, P K Sreemati was selected as AIDWA national president and it was decided that Mariyam Davale and S Punyavathi will continue as the general secretary and treasurer of the association respectively.
The conference also selected a 103-member central working committee and 34-member secretariat.
K K Shailaja and P Sathidevi were among the 15 vice presidents selected from Kerala.
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