Mumbai/New Delhi, Jan. 3: “Ants will swarm the place where sugar is,” Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra unit chief Abu Azmi said today reacting to the molestation of women on new year eve in Bengaluru, drawing condemnation from women activists for his “misogynistic” comments and calls for his arrest.
“Boys and girls should not be allowed to roam about together freely. Western culture has made its way into India. This should stop.
“The more the nudity, the more a girl is considered fashionable. Ants will swarm the place where sugar is,” Azmi said, virtually stirring a hornet’s nest as women activists poured scorn on the the MLA from Shivaji Nagar in suburban Mumbai.
“I don’t say all men are like that in the country, but a good 25 per cent of this country seems to be full of patriachal men who have no respect for women.. how will any country progess?
“The problem with politicising any issue is that the issue gets covered up totally and politics becomes important.
It does not matter whether Abu Azmi belongs to one particular party or another.. to be brutally frank, there are men across all parties who make these disgusting statements and they are all to be condemned equally,” Lalitha Kumar Mangalam, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, said.
She said the NCW has issued summonses to both Azmi and Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara, who had stoked a controversy after he blamed the “western ways” of the youngsters for the Bengaluru molestation incident.
Azmi, known for his penchant for ‘Shayari’ went on to say, “Achchi soorat bhi kya buri shay hai, jisne bhi dali...buri nazar dali (pretty face can be a cause for trouble. Whoever will cast an eye, will cast an evil eye).”
“Partying late night in half clad, blindly following western culture, has never been our culture. Ladies hailing from well-to-do families, be it from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan or UP, they come out in decent attire and mostly with their family members,” he said.
“I am saying what happened is very unfortunate.
Undoubtedly, making security arrangement to thwart any eventuality is police’s job. But, as far as Bengaluru molestation is concerned, women and their guardians must also take precautions and think that security starts at home. Our women must think about their security themselves,” Azmi said.
Defending Parameshwara’s comments, Azmi said, “He said the harsh reality. Such things do happen when women try to copy the westerners, not only in their mindset but even in their dressing,” he said.
NCW issues notices to Parameshwara, Azmi
(IANS adds)
The National Commission for Women on Tuesday issued notices to Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara and Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi for allegedly making sexist comments regarding the molestation of women by a mob here on New Year’s Eve.
NCW Chief Lalitha Kumaramangalam said while notices were issued to Parameshwara and Azmi, a letter was sent to the Karnataka government on Monday to know about the action taken in the molestation case.
“We have asked the minister to explain his statement and tender a public apology, failing which we will take further action. We have given him five days to reply,” Kumaramangalam told IANS.
A mob of drunken men groped women and heckled revellers on December 31 night on the MG Road and Brigade Road in the heart of Bengaluru.
On Tuesday, Azmi said: “It was bound to happen. Women call nudity a fashion. They were wearing short dresses.”
Azmi is said to have commented that women were like “sugar” and men were like ants, and compared women with petrol. “If there is petrol, there will be fire. If there is sugar, ants will come,” he reportedly commented.
Parameshwara is said to have blamed the “western ways” of the youngsters for the molestation. He said it was not uncommon for crowds of women to be molested in the city on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The minister was also reported to have said that “these kinds of things do happen”.
“They try to copy the West, not only in their mindset but even in their dressing. So some disturbance; some girls are harassed; these kind of things do happen,” the minister said.
