‘Sexist’ Vinay Katiyar, Sharad Yadav set off row

New Delhi/Patna: Two senior politicians — BJP MP Vinay Katiyar and former JD(U) president and Rajya Sabha member Sharad Yadav — on Wednesday stoked controversy by making sexist remarks against women. The National Commission for Women issued a notice to Mr Yadav for his remarks and sought an explanation within 24 hours, failing which he will have to appear before the panel.

Mr Katiyar stoked a controversy, saying there were “more beautiful women star campaigners than Priyanka Gandhi” in his party, provoking a sharp response from Ms Gandhi, who said his “sexist” remarks exposed the saffron party’s mindset towards women.

Interestingly, Mr Katiyar’s name doesn’t figure in the list of the BJP’s star campaigners for the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

The BJP later tried to distance itself from Mr Katiyar’s comments, with senior Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu saying such utterances were not acceptable to his party and that the government also does not support them. He expressed the hope that both Mr Katiyar and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav withdraw their statements.

Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Tuesday landed himself in a controversy after saying a “vote’s prestige is bigger than that of a daughter”. The former JD(U) chief made these remarks at a function in Patna to emphasise the importance of votes.

“The importance of the ballot paper has to be told to everyone and everywhere... Vote’s prestige is bigger than the prestige of a daughter. If a daughter’s prestige is compromised, it will only affect a village and an area but if the vote’s prestige is compromised or sold, then it impacts the entire nation and the province,” he had said.

Mr Yadav in fact had repeated his view a second time before ending his 30-minute speech with an appeal to people not to sell their votes at a party programme in Patna on Tuesday. “The prestige of ballot paper is bigger than that of daughter’s. Don’t sell it off. Go and tell the people in your area,” he added.

With his comments stoking a controversy, a defensive Mr Yadav said Wednesday: “I haven’t said anything wrong. Like the way we love, care and respect our daughters we should also do the same in case of votes, then our society can become good, our country can develop and we can have a good government. Vote is the engine of our Constitution... It is the driving force. Everyone has their own point of view, so what can I say?”

Reacting to Mr Yadav’s controversial statement, JD(U) national general secretary K.C. Tyagi said in Patna that it had been understood wrongly. “We Samajwadis have been of the view that a daughter and vote are to be given to a superior person. If a daughter is married to a wrong person, then only one family is destroyed, but if a vote is given to the wrong person, it destroys entire nation... This is not at all a sexist remark. We are sorry if it (Sharad’s statement) hurt the sentiments of any section of society,” Mr Tyagi added.