00:00So let's raise some big questions. Women soft targets for male politicians or is Uday Nidhi's arrest an overreach or
00:08justified?
00:09Is this vendetta politics at one level in Tamil Nadu? That first question of whether women are soft targets.
00:15I want to go straight to Kushpu Sundar joins me. Politician, actor, former member of the National Commission of Women.
00:22Kushpu Sundar, good to have you on the show.
00:24So when you first saw the remarks that Uday Nidhi's talent had passed against Trisha, the oblique references to Trisha,
00:32the double entendre, how did you see it?
00:35What was your first response to what you heard and saw what Uday Nidhi's talent had done?
00:45It was repulsive. It made me angry. It was very crude, crass.
00:50Uday Nidhi's leader of opposition and the former deputy CM cannot come up with these kind of statements on a
00:56public platform or anywhere for that matter.
00:58I think a man, when he is referring to a woman, I think he has to be doubly guarded as
01:03to what he says.
01:06You know, you're saying that these remarks were repulsive, but do you believe that repulsive remarks justified his detention and
01:13arrest?
01:13Or was that overreach and vendetta politics on the part of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu?
01:19Because Uday Nidhi referred to Trisha in the way that he had, does it give the right to the chief
01:24ministers or his supporters to decide Uday Nidhi must be detained and arrested without due process?
01:33So is Uday Nidhi and his team trying to say that they can refer to women as and when they
01:38want to, in the most derogatory, in the most abusive language, use the most filthiest way to describe a woman
01:45and get away with it because they have been doing so all these years?
01:48Is this what they, whatever they have given to the people never stood up for women?
01:52We have seen the kind of atrocities that have happened in the five years of DMK regime.
01:56They expect the same in somebody else's regime too.
01:59They said Vijay is governing the state, so let it pass because we men have the birthright to abuse a
02:05woman as and when we wish.
02:07Is that what Uday Nidhi's team is trying to say?
02:11You know, but as someone who's been in public life for a long time, are women a soft target in
02:18general?
02:19In Tamil Nadu, perhaps in India and the rest of the world, a woman who enters public life or is
02:24seen in the company of a chief minister immediately becomes a soft target?
02:30Yes, of course, women have always been the soft target.
02:33Men feel that it is their birthright to abuse a woman and especially if she is a celebrity and if
02:40she happens to be an actor, then more so because they think that women who are in cinema are public
02:47properties, not public figures.
02:49So they think being a public property can use and misuse her the way I want to because she is
02:54not supposed to open her mouth and react to it because I pay for your movie and I go to
02:59the theater, which agreed.
03:01But that does not mean that I am a public property.
03:05I deserve and I demand more respect than you as a nominee who you are the follower or who actually
03:14go and clap and whistle at the same time when you watch my films, dance to my tunes.
03:19I demand and I should be commanding more respect than you do.
03:23Women, especially in cinema, are not public properties to be abused and used, but they are public figures who demand
03:31and they should command the same amount of respect as the women from your family you think should get.
03:40Now, you've been in politics for a long time, you've been with different parties, with DMK, Congress, now with the
03:46BJP.
03:47Have you faced similar sexual comments, innuendos? Have you been targeted as a woman?
03:56Yes, when I was in Congress, I was at a Congress rally in Bangalore and one of the party members
04:03tried to fill me up on my waist and I had to turn around and slap.
04:07It's there on all the medias. I'm sure it's still there because I turned around and slap because whoever it
04:13might be, I'm not going to take nonsense from any man who's out there.
04:17When I was in DMK, I was part of DMK and how the own party members harassed me, they pulled
04:23my saree, they pulled my hair, they threw slippers at me because I had the courage to say that the
04:29general body is going to decide as to who the next leader will be of the DMK.
04:34And I was voicing the same message what the then DMK leader, Dr. Kalinger, had said and I was still
04:42slippered.
04:42And then we had the same DMK leaders being mute spectators and just nodding their head because their leader, the
04:50so-called then would-be leader was somebody they thought can get away with it.
04:55No, so I want to ask you then, you've given us how you, what happened to you. If you were
05:00in Trisha's place today, what would you do now? How would you respond?
05:07I would turn around and ask Mr. Udenidi Stalin if he would like to comment on the same thing. Had
05:14he been in a different party about his women?
05:18You know, but I also must ask you this. You're now with the BJP. You will recall that when Prime
05:22Minister Narendra Modi was a chief minister and campaigning for his 2014 election,
05:28he referred to Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda as a 50 crore girlfriend without naming her.
05:34You know, so it's not as if Udenidi Stalin is the first such politician to use derogatory language against women.
05:40When Prime Minister Modi, at that time Chief Minister Gujarat could call Shashi Tharoor's wife 50 crore girlfriend, isn't that
05:47problematic for you?
05:51Across political, then I remember condemning the Prime Minister, not because I was in Congress, but because I was a
05:58woman.
05:59Anything which is about a woman, I think every man should actually look into it and understand that you cannot
06:06degrade a woman as per your whims and fancies.
06:09A woman commands more respect than a man because, or at least when you talk about being in equality, the
06:17word we keep using equality.
06:20Where is the equality? Where is the equality we are talking about?
06:23A woman is degraded, she is abused, she is used, she is raped, she has been taken, any which way
06:29you look at it, it's there.
06:30I am glad though, I am glad you are at least admitting it's across parties, so whether it's a Prime
06:38Minister or a leader of the opposition, they cannot target women in this manner.
06:42In this manner, you've seen the kind of also abusive language, Kushpu Sundar, that many IT right-wing trolls in
06:50particular, use against women on social media, women in public life.
06:54So it's not as if, you know, we are referring today to Uday Needy, no one is excusing his behaviour
06:59at all.
06:59But when you were in the Congress, they used to attack you, these IT cells.
07:04So the fact is, there are lots of people out there using abusive, derogatory language against women, cutting across parties
07:11and ideologies.
07:12It's not just what's happening with the DMK, do you accept that or not?
07:18We need to stop that, and I'm glad that Vijay had taken a step by taking Mr. Uday Needy Stalin
07:24in custody, because I think, if you allow a man, we have been too forgiving.
07:30Aray, chalta hai, chhod dhe na, chhoti si baat hai, aray, chalta hai, jane dhe na, people will forget about
07:35it tomorrow.
07:36But why is it always about women where we have to say that, aray, jane dhe na, chhod dhe na?
07:41Why?
07:42Why, the minute there's a word, when I had spoken that the general body meeting will decide as to who
07:50the next leader of DMK will be, it was about a man, and I, my house was stoned, I was
07:57slippered, my pallu was pulled.
07:59If it was about women, they are not bothered, it's okay.
08:03Chalta hai, aray, jane dhe na, why make a big deal about it?
08:05Why is it when it comes about men, it has to be a big hoha and shosha about it?
08:11Because he's your leader?
08:12No.
08:13I think every woman, if we are in public life, if we are a celebrity, does not mean that it
08:19gives you the right to abuse us.
08:23Across the political line, across the political line, I think this should be a message, very clear message, that you
08:31will be held accountable if you abuse a woman.
08:34You know, I'm glad you're saying all of this, I will therefore ask you in conclusion, I asked you what
08:39would you have done if you were in Trisha's place?
08:41What would you do if you were in Uday Nidi's talent's place?
08:44Would you ask him to give above all else an apology right away today because he hasn't given one yet?
08:53That's the first thing I said in the morning.
08:55That's the first thing I did in the morning when there are two guys from DMK who actually spoke very
09:02equally foul language in a very derogatory manner.
09:05They spoke about me.
09:06Cases were filed against them.
09:08They were pulled to NCW and they were asked to apologize.
09:12And then the same Mr. M.K. Stalin, he was in power.
09:15He suspended one of these speakers for three months, and they took him back because they need men like them
09:22to abuse women on a social platform or on a larger public platform.
09:26So if he can be suspended, why is that Uday Nidi continues as a leader of opposition?
09:31Why is he not suspended?
09:34Okay, I take your point.
09:36So, Gushpu Sundar ko gussa kyo aata hai?
09:38Legitimately so in this case.
09:40I appreciate you joining us and being rather candid with me.
09:43Okay.
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