MP: Congress MLA supports Kailash Vijayvargiya's 'Shurpanakha' remark

Bhopal, April 10 (IANS) While the Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress staged a protest against BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya for his alleged controversial "Shurpanakha" remark over women, State Congress MLA Lakshman Singh has come out in support of the saffron party leader.

Singh, who is the younger brother of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh, has waded into the controversy asserting that "attention should be paid to women's dresses".

Expressing his view over the ongoing controversy regarding women's clothes that erupted following Vijayvargiya's comments, the Congress MLA said, "Indore is the city of Ahilya Devi's sanskar."

Singh agreed with the BJP leader's remark, saying what the latter said is "true in some sense".

He also took potshots at Vijayavargiya, referring him as "betaj badshah" of Indore.

"Listen to Kailash ji's statement (Shurpanakha). It is true in some sense, Indore is the city of Ahilya Devi's rituals. Attention should be paid to the women's dress," Singh wrote on Twitter, further adding that "But, Kailash brother, you are the the uncrowned king of Indore, then how such things are happening."

Singh, a five-time Lok Sabha member and three-term legislator, had joined the BJP in 2003 and resigned from the party in 2009.

His comment came two days after the Congress workers led by its state Mahila President Pratibha Patil staged a protest at Vijayavargiya's house in both cities - Indore and Bhopal against his "Shurpanakha" remark.

Last week, the BJP General Secretary had said, "When I leave for home at night, I see educated young people and children under the influence of drugs. I feel like getting down (from the car) and slapping them five to seven times to sober them up."

"We see the goddess in women. But (with) the kind of bad dresses the girls wear and move around, they do not embody the goddess but look like 'Shurpanakha'. God has given you a good and beautiful body... dress well, friends," he had said.