Keralam CM V D Satheesan defends criticism of Kanthapuram's comments
Keralam Chief Minister V D Satheesan isn't backing down after calling senior Islamic scholar Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar's comments about women in public life "an idea belonging to the 19th century."
After a video of his statement vanished from Facebook, Satheesan explained it was just a technical glitch with Instagram cross-posting, and said no outside pressure was involved.
Satheesan says meeting planned earlier
Satheesan faced pushback from Suprabhatam, the E K Sunni faction's mouthpiece, but he stood his ground, saying public scrutiny of leaders is a basic democratic right.
He clarified that his meeting with Sunni leaders was planned long before and had nothing to do with this issue.
Satheesan summed up his stance: "I have taken a stand. Still I am on that stand. They have their freedom to make statements against me and to write articles against me. This is democracy."