Girls in north told to stay in kitchen, bear children, says Dayanidhi Maran; BJP hits back

Chennai, Jan 14 (PTI) Senior DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday said girls in Tamil Nadu were asked to study, whereas their counterparts in the north were asked to stay at home, be in kitchen and bear children, and the remark evoked a strong reaction from the BJP.

Condemning Maran's comment, BJP leader Narayanan Thirupathy accused the DMK of "trying to create regional rifts." Participating in a function presided by Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin here on Tuesday, Maran said, "everything for everyone" (Ellarukum ellam) is the goal of the Dravidian model government helmed by Chief Minister M K Stalin.

Boys and girls in Tamil Nadu are expected to use the laptop distributed by the government either to face an interview or for their post graduation studies with confidence, the DMK MP said.

"In Tamil Nadu, we tell women to study. But what is told in the North India? They say girls should not go to work, they should be at home, be in the kitchen, bear children. This is your job. They say like this," Maran said at the laptop distribution event for students here.

"... this is Tamil Nadu. This is Dravida Nadu. It is the land of (late DMK patriarch) M Karunanidhi, (former Chief Minister) Anna and (Chief Minister) M K Stalin. In this soil, your (women's) progress is the progress of Tamil Nadu. Why global companies come to Chennai? Because, everyone here is educated not only in Tamil but also in English," he said.

Narayanan Thirupathy said, "Once again, Dayanidhi Maran and DMK have spoken without any sense. This is what Dravidian model is about...How can they abuse the North Indian women?" Thirupathy told PTI Videos.

Terming it as "wrong", he said, "You may say that you are big...But you cannot demean others..." Arguing that women's empowerment in Tamil Nadu is not a modern Dravidian invention, he noted that poet Bharathiyar championed these causes long before the DMK's rise.

He claimed that the Dravidian model has now become a tool for "abusing North Indians" and creating a rift between the Hindi-speaking people and non-Hindi speaking population. PTI VIJ VGN ROH