Bengal BJP chief defends calling JU female students 'shameless'

Kolkata: West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Sunday sought to justify his calling a section of Jadavpur University female students "shameless" even as his remarks continued to attract widespread outrage.

"The male students wear women undergarments while female students put up sanitary napkins to voice their protest, they publicly kiss each other in the name of protest. Is this decency? Is this what we want our next generation to learn," he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader was referring to the twin protests in 2015 - the 'sanitary pad' campaign against rape and sexism and the "Kiss of Love" against moral policing, undertaken by a section of varsity students.

"I have used the language that suits them. If what they (students) do is decency, then I have used apt language for them," added Ghosh, who, in response to charges of molestation brought against ABVP activists during a scuffle in the varsity over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri's film "Buddha in A Traffic Jam" on May 6, wondered why female students were present during the clash.

The clashes were between activists of RSS student wing ABVP and Left-leaning students.

"Those who fear so much for their modesty, why did they go there? This is shamelessness. Making such allegations (of molestation) is very cheap. These girls don't deserve to be supported. They intentionally threw themselves on others and are now blaming others," Ghosh had said on Saturday.

His remarks have been widely slammed.

"If the BJP and the RSS have any kind of morality then they should seek apology from the women folk of our country," said state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

"Foul-mouthed BJP state leaders habitual comment is nothing unusual! It's in complete consonance with the Taliban mindset of the RSS," tweeted CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra.