DMK Candidate Draws Flak Over Lewd Remarks

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate Dindigul Leoni faced flak after the leader made insensitive comments against women while campaigning for his party ahead of upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. Comparing women to cows, Leoni said that they had become fat by drinking the milk of foreign cows.

A video clip of his speech went viral over the internet, drawing flak from all over the country. In the video, Leoni can be heard saying, “Women are now drinking milk from foreign cows, which is the reason behind them putting on extra kilos,” and made lewd hand gestures to support his remarks.

Leoni also made distasteful remarks by deriding women for their shape and weight. “Women have lost their shape” and “increasingly look like a barrel”, he said while campaigning for the DMK.

“In a cowshed, people use a milking machine for foreign cows. These days, women drink milk from foreign cows because of which they have put on weight. Those days, a woman’s hip resembled the number 8 [had curves]. When she lifted her child, the little one stayed put on the hip. But now they’ve become like a barrel because of which women cannot carry their children on their hips,” he added.

A party member tried to intervene during Leoni’s speech, however, the leader was not deterred by the interruption and went on making disrespectful comments about women’s appearance.

Reacting to Leoni’s remarks, BJP’s Art and Culture Wing president Gayathri Raguramm termed it as shameful. “What a shamewhat milk does he drink? Does he know what happens to women’s body post pregnancy or during hormonal changes? @KanimozhiDMK what do you like to say to this kind of male chauvinist? Is this the respect your party people have for women (sic),” she tweeted.

Soon after Leoni’s video clip went viral, videos of West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh also surfaced on the internet where the leader was heard making distasteful comments on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s saree. Ghosh made fun of the TMC supremo for lifting up her sari up to show her bandaged foot. In his notorious rustic way, Ghosh wondered who wore a sari like that.

Expressing her disgust over Ghosh’s comments, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said “these perverted depraved monkeys think they are going to win Bengal”.