Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, Apr 11: A week after the protest organised by various associations against the Congress party and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi near DC's office on April 4 when Rahul visited Nehru Maidan for election campaign, it has been clarified that the protest was not against Rahul Gandhi but against the harassment of corporator Pratibha Kulai by a group.
Dr Olinda Pereira, the 88-year-old woman activist, former principal of School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya who has always fought for women causes was one of the key personalities who attended the protest. In a letter to daijiworld, she clarified that the protest had nothing to do with Rahul Gandhi's visit.
The protest was widely covered in daijiworld with pictures and Dr Pereira began receiving several calls and enquiries from well-wishers and friends worldwide asking about her involvement in a protest that was against Rahul Gandhi's visit or Congress party.
"I was much distressed to receive calls from my friends, who wondered why I involved myself in a demonstration against Rahul Gandhi’s visit on the April 4. I wish to state that I had nothing to protest against Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Mangalore. My presence at the demonstration at the DC's office gate was only to record my indignation over the indecent and insulting manner in which a woman was treated in Kulai," she clarified in her letter.
The protest organized by DYFI, SFI, and the Forum Against Atrocities on Women saw participation from women and even men from different walks of life from aound Mangalore. The protestors raised slogans like "Go Go Rahul Go! Go Go Rahul Go!" and showed black flags to express their ire at the Congress party for not giving adequate security to women in the country.
After the Rahul rally, the protest was also given political colour due to the timing of the protest.
But senior women's activist Dr Pereira clarified that the real intention of the protest was to condemn the attack on the woman corporator in Kulai.
Another woman activist, who participated in the protest, who did not want to be named, has also voiced similar opinion saying, "My friends and I were invited to protest against the attack on Pratibha, the corporator from Kulai. We never knew that there would be shouting of slogans against Rahul Gandhi or the Congress. If it was known to us earlier, we would not have participated in the protest."