Former chairperson of State Women’s Commission (SWC) C Manjula said, while a former chief minister was verbally attacking a former woman MP in Mandya district, the chief minister, who was in the neighbouring Mysuru district, famous for doling out various ‘bhagyas’, did not even think about providing ‘security bhagya’ for women.

Addressing media persons, here, on Thursday, Manjula said, it was unfortunate that former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) had made personal comments against former MP Ramya.

“Ramya was left helpless and had to fight it alone. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was campaigning for Congress Zilla and Taluk Panchayat candidates in Mysuru for five-long days remained silent. The top leaders of both the parties have exposed themselves that they are anti-women,” she said.

She called upon women to teach a lesson to both Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah in the ZP and TP polls. “This is not the first instance in the past three years since Siddaramaiah became chief minister that women have been left helpless, while they are attacked. IAS officer V Rashmi was attacked by the staffers of Administrative Training Institute, in Mysuru. If an IAS officer does not have security, just imagine the plight of other women,” she said.

V S Ugrappa was appointed as the Chairman of the Expert Committee on Prevention of Atrocities Against Women with Cabinet rank, following the resignation of M C Nanaiah, while the State Women’s Commission is competent enough to handle such cases. In a way, the chief minister is demoralising the commission chairperson, Manjula Manasa, also from chief minister’s district.

 Siddaramaiah should have taken steps to strengthen the commission instead of constituting the committee in 2014, immediately after appointing Manasa, Manjula said.

BJP State women’s wing vice president A V Vidya, S R Gopal Rao, Dattareya Shinde and Rajkumar were present.