Muslim League leader K M Shaji's comparison of chief ministers Pinarayi Vijayan and Mamata Banerjee provoked a gender debate in the Kerala Assembly on Thursday.
Shaji was moving an adjournment motion seeking a temporary halt to census proceedings in the state arguing that the Census could be used to update the National Population Register. Midway through the speech, his voice dripping contempt as he got into a higher register, Shaji employed Mamata to tear apart the CPM's approach on NPR.
“The Centre had called a meeting to discuss the NPR to which Kerala's representative had gone. But no one from Bengal was present. Though it is a woman who is ruling there, she is made of sterner stuff than a man. Not only had the Kerala representative signed on the minutes of the meeting, he did not even bother to append a dissent note,” Shaji said.
By then, many on the ruling side were up on their feet. CPM MLA M Swaraj said Shaji had made a sexist statement by comparing the two chief ministers. “What he said does not conform to the standards of a modern society. His gender terminology is highly problematic. It is primitive,” Swaraj said. He wanted Shaji's anti-woman statement struck off from the Assembly records.
Health minister K K Shylaja looked even more agitated. “What is wrong if a woman rules a state,” Shylaja asked. “Shaji's statement that a woman was better than even a man is an insult to womanhood,” she said.
Then, turning to Congress's Shanimol Usman who was seated beside Shaji, the health minister asked: “Aren't you not ashamed to hear Shaji's words.” Usman was seen smiling sheepishly and reluctantly raising her hands to make a point.
Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, too, remarked that Shaji's 'though she is a woman' comment was demeaning and not in tune with modern sensibilities.
Shaji quickly stood up and disowned a part of what he said. He agreed that the part “though she is a woman” could cause misunderstanding, and told the Speaker that he was withdrawing it. “But I still stand by the phrase 'a woman stronger than a man'. I don't consider it an insult but a tribute to womanhood,” he said.
Later Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the representative from Kerala, whom Shaji had ridiculed, had categorically told the Centre that Kerala would not cooperate with the NPR. “When he said this, the Census Director himself said he knew Kerala's stand on the issue,” Pinarayi said.