Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has reacted to the 'Mollywood MeToo' row and said that he is proud of Kerala women for standing up against the perpetrators. In an interview with NDTV, Tharoor also pulled up Indian men for not being able to 'address the problem'.
"Every day when I pick up the newspaper there is some incident... some woman has been assaulted. It could be a college student, a child, or a middle-aged lady. (There must be) something wrong with Indian men if we can't address this problem," he told the news channel.
"I think there are many things coming out of the closet of our society... beginning with assaults against women. This goes back forever but is now talked about since the Nirbhaya tragedy of 2012 and now the R G Kar Hospital rape and murder of 2024," he said.
Talking about the series of sexual assault allegations against the bigwigs of the Malayalam film industry in the backdrop of the Hema Committee report, the Lok Sabha MP said that he was "disappointed" but also proud of the women of the state.
"I am proud that the first place in India that has exposed what everyone says is going on in every other film industry, is Kerala.... at least Kerala stood and up said, 'this is not right'," he said.
Tharoor also slammed the ruling CPI(M) for "sitting on the report for five years."
On actors and members of Association of Malayalam Movie Actors (AMMA) resigning after the allegations, Tharoor told NDTV, "(Of the) people who have resigned, in some cases, their own names have been taken by accusers... (resigning) is not just about moral responsibility... the fact is they presided over a system that allowed this to happen."
Addressing the larger issue of women safety and need for sensitising men, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said that there is need of "serious gender sensitivity instruction for schoolboys from a very young age".
Published 31 August 2024, 11:03 IST