Kanimozhi, who loves to cry misogyny at the drop of a hat and does not lose an opportunity to spew venom against Hinduism and Brahmins for occasional individual misdemeanours, is ironically in complete approval of blatant sexism and misogynism practiced by prominent leaders of DMK.

Kanimozhi is least perturbed about a massive social media outrage triggered over appointment of Dindigul I Leoni, a man infamous for his sexist remarks and misogynistic attitude, as the head of Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation by the DMK government headed by MK Stalin.

Leoni had made highly derogatory remarks on women during the campaign for DMK in the run-up to the recently held assembly elections this year. A widespread outrage erupted when the video of his obnoxious statements went viral.

Leoni had disgustingly said, while canvassing for Karthikeya Sivasenapathy in Coimbatore, that women’s figures no longer resemble the number ‘8’ because they drink the milk of foreign cows nowadays. “Women are now drinking milk from foreign cows, which is the reason behind them putting on extra kilos,” Dindigul Leoni had said.

The DMK leader also body shamed women and distastefully compared women’s bodies to barrels, saying that they “cannot carry their children on their hips” because they are overweight.

The Textbook corporation is responsible for publishing, printing, and selling books free of cost to the government and government-aided schools, and also to private schools at a rate fixed by the government. It has been producing books for English and Tamil medium syllabi for students of Classes I to XII. The post was previously held by former AIADMK MLA B Valarmathi as reported by The Hindu.

The PMK youth-wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss condemned the move severely and demanded the government to withdraw its decision. Taking to Twitter, Ramdoss said Leoni, who has been regularly making derogatory remarks against women, should be replaced by a qualified educationist. He said appointing a person like Leoni is a disgrace to the post.

Similarly, political commentator, Sumanth Raman took a dig at the appointment and sarcastically posted on Twitter, “Appointment of Dindigul Leoni as Head of Tamil Nadu Textbook Society is an interesting choice. He can teach children plenty of things they would otherwise never learn in school can’t he? Loyalty has to be rewarded but should it be at the expense of decency?”

Journalist Sandhya Ravishankar too expressed her disgust over the appointment in her Tweet saying, “Of all the people Dindigul Leoni! Looking forward to disgusting and sexist lessons in schools now. What a choice!”

Notably, Dindigul Leoni is reportedly DMK’s propaganda wing secretary and an anchor on the DMK mouthpiece Kalaignar TV and a very old member of the party. Moreover, Dindigul Leoni is more known for his career in singing and mimicry other than making sexist remarks. He is not even remotely oriented to serious academics.

Actually Stalin’s choice is not very surprising given the very poor track record of DMK leaders with respect to women ranging from crass remarks and history of sexual harassment from leaders like Vairamuthu, A. Raja, etc. even MK Stalin does not enjoy a very good reputation with respect to women as told by some old women students of Stella Maris College in Madras. Given this background despite the huge uproar and criticism, its highly unlikely that the DMK would remove a sexist and misogynist from heading the textbook corporation.

News input: India Today, The Hindu.

Image sourced from internet.

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