During a recent campaign by the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) in Coimbatore, the Kamal Haasan-led party had issued a press release in reply to Smriti Irani’s comments about having a healthy debate with BJP candidate Vanathi Srinivasan. The MNM press release had disparagingly called Srinivasan a “tukkada” politician.
Replying to those comments, Vanathi posted a video on social media, lashing out at MNM.
She said the following in the video: “I am from a small village near Coimbatore, and completed my education in a government school. I then took up a job as an advocate, and I too have a family. Keeping all that aside, I have dedicated my time and energy towards the service for the people of Coimbatore. You can go ahead and refer the annual reports and my social media handles for all that I have done in the last 5 years.”
She continued, “Despite all this, if you have called me a ‘tukkada’ politician, then people should realise the amount of respect that their party has towards women. If a woman who has come up from a humble background is being spoken ill like this, this shows the quality of politics that they are indulging in. Even your households might have women who would have struggled their way up to success. If this is the way I am being treated, imagine the state of the women in your family if they come to power. This is a question that MNM and Kamal Haasan have to answer.”
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