Thiruvananthapuram: A top leader of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF), who is facing charges of using derogatory remarks against some of the women members of the outfit during a recent meeting, on Thursday expressed regret over the incident, but stuck to his claim that he did not use any word with malicious intent.
PK Navas, the president of MSF, the students' wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), came up with a Facebook post detailing his version of the issue, which had triggered a widespread row in the state putting the organisations in a fix.
He claimed that he did not make any "personal or gender-specific" remark against anyone during the recent state committee meeting of the MSF, as alleged by the leaders of Haritha, the women's wing of the outfit.
"I did not utter a single word with malicious intent during the meeting, which was attended by around 30 people including a woman activist.
I express my regret if any of my colleagues who took part in the meeting were hurt due to misunderstanding or otherwise," he said in the FB post.
Navas said if the issue had been raised or protest was registered in the meeting, he would have been prepared to correct the misunderstanding then itself or even apologise if necessary.
Noting that he did not react to the controversy so far as he did not want to violate the party discipline, he also wished that the controversy would end here forever.
A group of Haritha leaders had recently petitioned the state Women's Commission against the objectionable remarks allegedly used by some of the male leaders of the outfit, including Navas.
They said they had approached the rights panel as the IUML leadership failed to take any timely action against the 'guilty'.
As the issue had triggered a row putting the IUML and its allied organisations in a fix, the party leadership had last week decided to freeze the state committee of ''Haritha'.
Fathima Thahiliya, the national vice president of the MSF and a founding leader of Haritha, came out against the decision and said they did not get "natural justice".
(With inputs from PTI)
