Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan on Wednesday said he had not wavered from his earlier opinion on Sunni leader Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar’s recent controversial opinions against the participation of women in public platforms.“I have taken a clear stand on his statements. In case, there is any change in that, I will inform the media. The comments I made last week are still available on my Instagram and Facebook pages. One of the posts got deleted due to issues with cross posting, which was used by a section of the media to claim that I had changed my stand,” he said.Mr. Aboobacker, general secretary of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama and Grand Mufti of India, had asked mahals and madrasas under Samastha to ensure that religious programmes follow Islamic norms. The circular asked them to prevent women from sharing stage or public space with unrelated men during religious celebrations. It also advised against incorporating custom from other cultures into Islamic festivals.After Mr. Satheesan said Mr. Aboobacker's comments were unsuitable for modern, progressive Keralam, an editorial published in Suprabhatham, mouthpiece of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, on Sunday lashed out at at him, saying his comments were akin to a blind man describing an elephant. It further said that Mr. Satheesan who had in the past opposed entry of young women to Sabarimala was now speaking about women’s freedom. The editorial accused a few elements from within the Muslim community of feeding wrong information to the Chief Minister.The Kerala Muslim Jamaat had also condemned Mr.Satheesan’s remarks and demanded that the Chief Minister withdraw the statement and apologise to the Muslim community. "They have their rights to criticise me. The CM of Keralam is not beyond criticism. If someone criticises me, they don't become my enemies," said Mr. Satheesan.Mr. Satheesan also said that he had “forgiven” expelled Congress leader Anil Kumar, aka Chenthi Anil, who was recently arrested for allegedly blocking his convoy and behaving improperly after the former skipped a programme organised by him. “When he apologised to me, he became the bigger person and I became the smaller one. That is how I felt," he said.On the allegations that the Chief Minister had made a false claim last week regarding forensic analysis of the phone used by the accused in the MDMA case involving the Chief Minister's social media coordinator, he said he made the comments based on information provided by the Home department.Regarding the criticism that the Chief Minister as well as Ministers had appointed a large number of personal staff, Mr. .Satheesan said he and his Ministers had appointed only 476 personal staff, while the previous LDF government had appointed 787 personal staff. The Chief Minister had appointed 31 staff members, with the rules allowing more appointments, he said. Published - September 09, 2026 07:16 pm IST