Vijayvargiya’s ‘Shurpanakha’ remark sexist, reveals BJP’s low mentality: TMC

The Trinamool Congress on Saturday termed BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s comment that girls wearing “bad dresses” look like Shurpanakha as sexist, and revealing the “low mentality” of the saffron party.

India is "walking backwards" under the BJP's rule, the TMC claimed.

The party’s Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar tweeted: "This openly sexist remark reveals the low mentality of the party. " Another TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev asked “Who defines dirty clothes? Shameless & shameful. Kailash Vijayvargiya." The party also slammed Vijayvargiya, a former BJP minder for West Bengal, on its official Twitter handle.

"India continues to walk backwards under the leadership of PM @narendramodi. Senior @BJP4India leaders are now comparing women to demoness for simply choosing to wear what they please!" The TMC’s West Bengal spokesperson Kunal Ghosh described the BJP leader's comments as "sexist and misogynist".

A video of Vijayvargiya’s remarks, made at a religious function organised in Indore on the occasion of Hanuman and Mahavir Jayanti on Thursday, went viral on social media.

“We see goddess in women. But (with) the kind of bad dresses the girls wear and move around, they do not embody goddess but look like Shurpanakha. God has given you good and beautiful body…..dress well, friends,” he said.

In the popular version of the Ramayana, Shurpanakha is the sister of the demon king Ravana.