Stoking controversy, president of BJP’s State women’s wing, Bharathi Shetty, on Tuesday said women “don’t need equality with men in all aspects of life”.

Responding to queries on entry of young women into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala and ban on triple talaq by Muslim men, Ms. Shetty said that women need equality with men “only in certain aspects that are beneficial to them”. “If men go and drink in hotels and pubs, I don’t want to do the same. We don’t need that kind of equality,” she said. Though women want freedom, Ms. Shetty said, they don’t need the type of freedom that is “harmful” to them. “Women don’t need equality with men in all aspects,” she said. Just like men can’t be equal to women, women also can’t be equal to men. The roles of men and women should be ‘as defined by the creator’,” she said.

Reiterating the BJP’s opposition to entry of young women into the Ayyappa temple, Ms. Shetty said she was against women transgressing religious restrictions. She added that the Centre had acted against triple talaq to help Muslim women who face trouble on the domestic front.

Ms. Shetty’s remarks drew sharp reactions from women’s organisations. Vimala from the Akhila Bharatha Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane said the BJP women’s wing leader’s statement amounts to “ridiculing womanhood”. She said it was not surprising for people in the saffron party to deny women equal status as Manusmriti is their “guiding spirit”.

It me be recalled that the Karnataka State Women’s Commission chairperson Nagalakshmi Bai too had attracted condemnation from women’s organisations after she had refused to endorse the entry of women into the Ayyappa temple.