New Delhi: Kerala Congress president Mullappally Ramachandran, who drew flak Sunday for appearing to blame rape victims for the crime, is no stranger to controversy.
Addressing allegations of rape levelled at some Congress leaders, Ramachandran in Thiruvananathapuram said, “Every day when she wakes up, she claims she was raped. A woman who says she was raped across the state, she’s dressed up and made to stand behind the curtain. We can understand if a woman says she was raped once. Any woman with self-respect will either die or prevent being raped again. But, she keeps crying that she was raped again and again all over the state.”
His statement was in reference to a woman involved in the 2013 state solar scandal, who had subsequently accused multiple Congress leaders of rape.
This, however, isn’t the first time that Ramachandran, a seven-time Lok Sabha MP and former minister of state (MoS) for home affairs, has been slammed for his controversial statements, often deemed sexist and misogynistic.
From calling Kerala Health Minister K.K. Shailaja the ‘Nipah Rajakumari’ and ‘Covid Rani’ to accusing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of holding a ‘sangh-parivar-like mindset’, Ramachandran has courted controversy several times in the last few years.
On Sunday, he apologised for his comments on that very stage, when he realised they were being perceived as anti-women, but by then the damage had been done.
Since then, multiple senior leaders, including Shailaja, have slammed Ramachandran for his comments, terming them “dangerous” and “inappropriate”.
ThePrint reached Ramachandran via calls and texts, but there was no response until the time of publishing this report.
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The ‘Covid Rani’, ‘rock dancer’ attacks on Shailaja
Ramachandran appears to reserve some of his most ‘sexist’ references for Health Minister Shailaja.
He has referred to her as the ‘Nipah Rajakumari (Nipah princess)’ and ‘Covid Rani (Covid Queen)’ while accusing the minister of failing to tackle the Coronavirus.
“Our health minister camped there (Kozhikode) as a guest artist (during the Nipah outbreak). Now the government is taking credit,” Ramachandran had said in June this year. “And just the way she is making efforts to get the title of ‘Covid Rani’, she then competed to earn the title ‘Nipah Rajakumari’.”
He was referring to the Nipah outbreak that hit Kerala in 2018 and then again in 2019.
The CPI(M) had at the time demanded an apology but Ramachandran refused to budge. Instead, he launched into another tirade against the health minister — calling her a ‘rock dancer’. It was in reference to a piece in The Guardian, which had described Shailaja as Kerala’s “rock star Health Minister.”
“It was The Guardian newspaper published from London that called the health minister a rockstar… I don’t know much about modern dance… But it has called her a ‘rock dancer’ of Kerala…” Ramachandran said, seemingly confusing ‘rockstar’ with ‘rock dance’.
When asked if he would be willing to apologise, Ramachandran had hit back, saying, “What are you talking about? Apology, me? Nothing doing. Apology!… Someone has called her a rock dancer, while I called her a princess and a queen. What is wrong in that?”
Run-ins with CM Pinarayi Vijayan
It isn’t just K.K. Shailaja who Ramachandran has had run-ins with.
In January this year, Ramachandran had accused Chief Minister Pinarayii Vijayan of having a “Sangh Parivar” mindset and trying to “please Modi and Amit Shah”.
“His claims that he is the protector of minority communities, let him come to northern Kerala,” Ramachandran had said. “He is a man with Sangh Parivar mind and whatever his actions are, he is doing it to please Modi and Amit Shah.”
Prior to this, in December 2018, he had questioned why Vijayan had appointed Loknath Behera as state police chief, overlooking four senior DGPs. He said it was after Vijayan met with PM Modi that he appointed Behera to the crucial post, overlooking the objections of the CPM central committee.
Behera’s appointment was controversial, as he had investigated the Gujarat riots case and Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
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A political veteran
Ramachandran, however, is a political veteran — he has had a long political career spanning over five decades.
He first made his mark in 1970, as the chairman of the Calicut district’s Youth Congress. Subsequently, Ramachandran rose up the ladder, and served as the president of the state’s Youth Congress from 1977-82.
Ramachandran contested the 1982 assembly elections, but lost. It was 1984 when his winning sequence began — securing victory in the Lok Sabha elections from the Kannur constituency. He won four more consecutive elections from Kannur, emerging as a very popular leader in the region.
However, after he lost the sixth time around, he switched his constituency to Vatakara in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. To Ramachandran’s credit, he was able to win the seat despite the fact that it had seen no Congress MP since 1996. He was then elevated to the post of MoS for Home affairs during UPA-2. He is still the serving Vatakara MP.
Ramachandran was made the president of the Kerala Congress in 2018, as he was seen as a “neutral” figure, acceptable to all factions in the party.
Sources in the Congress said his recent slew of controversial statements is likely to harm him internally in the party. “He was chosen as the president as he did not belong to any particular faction, but now his comments aren’t going down well with many people in the party,” a party leader, who did not wish to be named, said.
“He has held multiple posts over the years. If a veteran politician like him cannot control his tongue, then it just shows how the leadership of Congress has failed to evolve with time,” said J. Prabhash, head of political science department in University of Kerala.
Kerala Congress spokesperson K.P. Anil Kumar, however, defended Ramachandran’s remark. “He was just calling out the LDF government for their tactics to defame Congress. He was speaking frankly,” Kumar said.
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CONGRASS is imitating the ideology wherein woman are ITEMS or TAANCH MAAL , if a woman is not covered from head to toe .
Remember their SUPREME leader cried for 3 days after terrorist were killed at batla HOUSE.
Ishrat jahan is a martyr whereas MODIJI is referred to as MAUT KA SAUDAGAR.
Hindu WOMAN would suffer the same fate as that in pakistan if congrass government is formed ever.
Hindu woman who was covered from head to toe has already suffered….she was raped and murdered. Govt sent police to burn the body at night.
Shaileshji pls note
1. This happened in UP, not Pakistan
2. BJP govt, not ’CONGRASS’
3. Girl was not terrorist, CM calls himself Yogi
4. Rapists were also Hindu
So tell me again what will happen if CONGRASS comes to power?