The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was started by CN Annathurai and has a history of speaking ill about women right from its conception. This was the case not just with its founder CN Annadurai but also his successors M. Karunanidhi, his son MK Stalin, his son Udayanidhi and the party spokespersons, the most recent being A Raja.

Despite the fact that Annadurai excelled in governance with his talents like public speaking and writing, he was caught in a controversy after he was allegedly involved in an affair with a famous actress. Unlike today’s politicians who would have vehemently denied such accusations, Annadurai, who was the state’s Chief Minister at the time, commented on this issue saying, “I’m not a monk. I have my own desires, and I am human. Neither is she someone who was entirely pure to her husband.” This is the same man who is now being conferred with titles crowning him as a ‘renowned scholar’.

Next up is Karunanidhi, who has a track record of consistently speaking crassly about women. Of these, two major incidents are given below. Once is during a protest staged by the DMK in Madurai, Congress leader Indira Gandhi, who was the Prime Minister at the time, was hit in the head and started bleeding. When asked to comment about the injury, Karunanidhi had perversely said that it would have been ‘menstrual blood’ that would have leaked out.

In another incident, a female Congress MLA called Ananthanayaki had questioned in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, as to where the so-called Dravida naadu (dravidian country) was, to which Karunanidhi replied saying she should remove her saree’s petticoat and check underneath to find it. He also went on to criticise former CM Late Jayalalithaa after he had consistently lost to her, saying that she will no longer be able to have kids since her best years were behind her, and said that he would have helped her have kids if she had asked him. He then went on to say that she knew a lot of languages because she was in ‘that kind of a job’, hinting at prostitution.

Following suit, his Udhayanidhi Stalin commented about EPS’ appointment as the CM saying that he would have worked ‘under Sasikala’s legs’ to get the post of CM’.

Even in the current election campaign, it is evident that the DMK is not willing to turn over a new leaf in terms of their respect towards women. Recently, the party’s propaganda secretary Dindigul Leoni spoke disparagingly of women, comparing their figure to that of barrels, and said that if they had to obtain the figure resembling the number 8, they should stop drinking the milk of imported cows. On Saturday, DMK’s deputy general secretary A. Raja spoke ill of the Chief Minister’s mother.

These instances show that speaking ill of women has become something of a tradition for the DMK. It has become clear that it is not possible to separate the DMK and the third rated speech as they have absolutely no respect for women.

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