Kerala: ‘Woman with self respect would kill herself if she were raped,’ claims state Congress chief

The chief of the Congress unit in Kerala, Mullappally Ramachandran, on Sunday insulted rape complainants, claiming that a woman with self-respect would kill herself instead of publicly accepting that she was sexually assaulted, The Indian Express reported. His misogynistic remarks sparked public outrage, following which Ramchandran issued an apology. “No one can trust a woman who publicly says she got raped,” Ramachandran said, according to Times Now. “A woman with self-respect will kill herself if she is raped.” The Congress leader was speaking at an agitation launched by the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Thiruvananthapuram against the allegedly corrupt practices of the Left Democratic Front government.

Ramachandran accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of resorting to “blackmail politics” by using names of women like Saritha Nair, a key accused in the Kerala solar scam of 2013. Nair had accused former chief minister and Congress leader Oommen Chandy of sexually assaulting her at his official residence in Thiruvananthapuram in 2013. “A woman who says she was raped across the state, she’s dressed up and made to stand behind the curtain,” Ramchandra said, suggesting the state government was using Nair as a pawn. “She keeps asking when she should come out. Chief Minister, your game will not work here. This blackmail politics will not work here. The people of Kerala can understand it.

The Congress leader said that Vijayan should “drown and die” if he thought he could “bring a prostitute and make her cook stories”. “Kerala is tired of hearing it…we can understand if a woman says she was raped once,” Ramachandran added. “Any woman with self-respect will either die or prevent being raped again. But, she keeps crying she was raped again and again all over the state.”