After actor-director K Bhagyaraj said in a speech, at a film promotion event, that women invite men to sexually assault them by their behaviour, Andhra Pradesh Women's Commission Chairperson Vasireddy Padma has written to the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women, urging legal action against the director for his reprehensible, misogynistic statements.
Vasireddy Padma, in her letter addressed to the Chairperson of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women, said that Bhagyaraj had made “sheer general comments quoting one or two instances” which had hurt the feelings of women activists, women's organisations, the Women's Commission and the government's efforts.
She has urged the Chairperson of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women to take up the issue at the “highest levels of Government and Judiciary and see that appropriate action is initiated against Bhagyaraj.”
Speaking at the audio launch of a film titled Karuthukalai Pathivu Sei, which is reportedly on how a woman is duped by people she meets through social media, the veteran actor-director in a classic victim-blaming statement said, “Oosi idam kudukaama nool nozhayadhu (the thread won’t enter if the needle doesn't give it space to do so). Even if it is said in a comic vein, that is the truth. It’s only because you women give space that there is an opportunity for mistakes. How can you always just blame boys?”
Encouraged by the applause and cheers, he went on to add, “If a man makes a mistake, he will meander and come back. If women make a mistake in such issues, it will become a huge mistake. If a man has a chinna veedu (a mistress), he will do anything for the chinna veedu, giving money, etc. He will not disturb the periya veedu (wife). If you see in the newspapers about a woman having a kalla kadhalan (secret lover) then you will read that they killed their husband or child. That is why women need to be under control.”
Karuthukalai Pathivu Sei is said to be inspired by the Pollachi sexual assault and extortion case that shook Tamil Nadu in February this year. Speaking about the Pollachi incident, he said, “The boys are not the only ones responsible. You have a weakness and he has correctly used it. If what he did is a big mistake then you have also created an opportunity for that (to take place). That only is a very big mistake.”