Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday stunned the audience by holding the foreign rule responsible for the lack of respect for women in India.
Photo: PTIAddressing the 30th convocation of Kurukshetra University, he said women formed about 50 percent of the population, and must be respected. Indians called their country ‘Bharat Mata’, he said.
“Most of our rivers like Godavari, Ganga, Yamuna are named after females. Saraswati mata is for knowledge, Durga mata for defence and Laxmi mata for finance,” he was quoted by PTI. The PTI report further added that Naidu held colonial and foreign rule responsible adding that the manner in which society now saw women despite these traditions was condemnable. “It is shameful and needs to be condemned,” Naidu said.
The comments made by Naidu, who was a tall BJP leader before he became the country’s vice president, have come amidst growing condemnation for the saffron party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While two BJP ministers had supported the protesters supporting the rapists and murderers of the 8-year-old Kashmiri girl, another BJP MLA was accused of raping a teenager in Uttar Pradesh, where the rape victim’s father had succumbed to injuries in the police custody.