'Yesudas pained after women dress remarks taken forward'

Thiruvananthapuram: Noted singer K.J. Yesudas is upset in the manner his Thursday's women dress code remarks are being taken forward, CPI-M politburo member M.A. Baby said Friday.

Speaking to IANS, Baby who was also the state culture minister (2006-11) said he came to know this after a chat with Yesudas's wife Prabha.

Baby said: "She told me that he (Yesudas) is pained in the manner in which his good intentional remarks to women in general that they should be modestly dressed was taken out of context and is being discussed."

He added that she said Yesudas never meant to portray women in bad light.

"I did not speak to Yesudas and if you ask my opinion, it can be seen in two ways -- if only his statements are seen, it may not sound good, but then we should look at it in a larger canvas and also see it in contextual terms and in that case, there is no mala fide in his remarks, because he only wanted to give a good advice," said Baby.

Yesudas made the remark at a cleanliness drive under the Swachh Bharat campaign at the Swathi Thirunal Music College here.

Yesudas said he was of the opinion that women should dress modestly and whatever should be covered should be covered because that is the culture of women.

Women political leaders, cutting across parties, including the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Congress, condemned the remark. But in the social media a good number of men said that what Yesudas said is true.

A techie who did not wish to be identified told IANS that he was shocked to see women dressed in very small shorts walking on the streets in two cities that he visited.

"Soon after Yesudas's remarks came on TV here, I also felt what he said is true from what I saw in the metros. But in Kerala, by and large women are always dressed decently. Even when it came to techies, Kerala women are dressed neat and clean compared to their compatriots in other IT cities," the IT professional said.

The singer who turns 75 next January has sung more than 60,000 songs (including 40,000 film songs) in 14 languages in a singing career that began 52 years back.

Settled in Chennai, he has won seven national awards besides being honoured with the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.