A day after ex-Congressman Cherian Philip made derogatory comments against female Youth Congress leaders who recently staged a model strip protest, politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan offered support to Philip.

He said, “Philip’s comments weren’t against women. He just spoke about the culture of the congress party.” Vijayan suggested, “He might have told this out of his experience.”  

On Sunday, through his Facebook post, Philip suggested that female Congress leaders always had to offer sexual favors in order to get election tickets.The female Youth Congress leaders were holding a protest against senior leaders of the party over a disagreement on seat sharing for the local body elections.

Cherian Philip was a member of the Congress party and was seen as the right-hand man of former Defence Minister A K Anthony before contesting as an independent candidate for the LDF in 2006. 

"Cheriyan Philip is not anti-women, he knows better about Congress as he worked there for long,"  said Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, CPI(M) state secretary speaking on the same lines.

However, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, veteran CPI (M) leader VS Achuthanandan disagreed with his colleagues. He said, “That was a culture-less comment. I reject this scornfully. He should withdraw the post and apologize.”