Bigg Boss Tamil 3: Chinmayi slams Saravanan, Kamal Haasan for normalising rape culture in bus

Singer Chinmayi Sripada slammed Bigg Boss Tamil 3 contestant Saravanan and host Kamal Haasan for normalising the sexual harassment of women and rape culture in the public transport on Saturday, July 27.

As usual, Kamal Haasan appeared on Bigg Boss Tamil 3 and interacted with the contestants on Saturday night. At some point in the show, the host raised the issue of the trouble in boarding public bus. He said, "To travel on a busy bus is a big hassle. While there are people who are rushing to reach office on time, there are those who get in just to touch women inappropriately."

Saravanan, who is one of the participants of Bigg Boss Tamil 3, was quick in responding to him, by raising his hands up and admitting it. Kamal Haasan apparently felt that he used to punish the molesters. But Saravanan went on to make the big startling revelation that he used to board the public bus to molest women during his college days.

Saravanan's shocking admission of molesting girls on the bus was met with a cheer from the audience. He did not stop there, as he went on to justify his action by saying "It was long back when I was in college".

Kamal Haasan is not only an actor but also the chief of the political party Makkal Needhi Maiam. He is the responsible persona and he should have condemned Saravanan's brazen admission. But he failed to do it, as he went to normalizing rape culture, saying, "He (Saravanan) has gone beyond all that and is now become pure and holy."

Sexual harassment of women is one of the most debated topics in India in recent years. Here, a person is proudly admitting the crime against women, the TV host is normalising his act, audience receiving these stuff with laud cheer and the owner of the TV channel are irresponsibly telecast this scene.

Singer Chinmayi Sripaada, who is a leading voice in the #MeToo movement, took to Twitter to blast all of them. She retweeted a video clip showing this and wrote, "A Tamil channel aired a man proudly proclaiming he used the Public Bus Transport system to molest/grope women - to cheers from the audience. And this is a joke. To the audience. To the women clapping. To the molester. Damn."

In this thread of her Twitter post, Chinmayi Sripaada wrote a detailed note, condemning contestant, Host, Bigg Boss Tamil 3 organisers and audience for promoting rape culture in the public transport bus. Here is her lengthy comment.

I mean, do NONE of these people understand that millions of kids get molested on the bus? And that it is traumatic?!! How is anyone supposed to get justice in a society like this that cheers molesters? I took the PTC bus and then the MTC bus to school and even thereafter until I could get a second hand LML Trendy. There are some men in buses USE the crowd as an excuse to push their genitals into women AND younger men who are so traumatised that they don't even know how to process it! When I attended German class, a guy told us that he gets molested by older men in the bus. Until then I had no idea boys get molested too. Thankfully he was strong enough to poke and even break the fingers of such men. Most girls cry. Or we numb ourselves. Saying it is normal. We begin normalising such behaviour and then train ourselves to never speak up or create a scene. Coz, hey, we need to go to college and school and work! Bus la nerusal irundhaalum, illaattalum, mela vandhu vizharavan nerusal naala vizharana, nerusal a saakka vechuttu molest panraanaa-nnu, adha anubhavichu tholanjavangaluku dhaan teriyum. ii,