BJP leader says Draupadi was world's first feminist, Tweeps ask if Shikhandi was the first LGBT activist

Ram Madhav also said that Draupadi was "singularly responsible" for the Mahabharata war

‘Feminism’ was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2017 owing to the women’s marches and the #MeToo campaign, but according to a BJP leader, the world’s first feminist was right here in India. BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav on Sunday, December 17 said that Pandava queen Draupadi was the “first feminist in the world”.

At the one-day Indic Thoughts festival held in Panaji — Goa’s capital, Madhav said,

Draupadi was the first feminist in the world. She had five husbands; she won’t listen to any of the five. She only listened to (Lord) Krishna, who was a friend. But we never call her promiscuous.

Madhav said that Draupadi was “singularly responsible” for the Mahabharata war that led to the killing of 18 lakh people on the battlefield. He also said that the war resulted from Draupadi’s stubbornness.

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Tweeps had a field day trolling the former RSS member, with many asking whether being a feminist meant being able to marry five men at once.

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Ram Madhav was recently in the news when he said that the BJP would form a government in every state. In an interview with Al Jazeera two years ago, he claimed that RSS believed Pakistan and Bangladesh would merge with India to form Akhand Bharat. While replying to question on Kashmir, Madhav told the interviewer — Mehdi Hasan — to worry about “your ISIS”.

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