It has failed to act against its ‘molester’ MP
By refusing to take action against its MP from Kollam in Kerala, N Peethambara Kurup, who had molested award-winning Malayalam movie actor Swetha Menon in front of thousands of people and dozens of TV cameras, the Congress has once again proved how hypocritical and irresponsible it is on issues of protecting the honour of women. In the case of Mr Kurup, who had committed the shameful act of making sexual advances to the actor even after she expressed her objection through vivid expressions and gestures, the Congress allowed its middle-level leaders to unleash attacks on her personal integrity in its urgency to protect him. The police of Kerala's Congress-led UDF Government extended all the support it could to these leaders and Mr Kurup, by refusing to register a case against him suo moto when TV channels repeatedly telecast clippings of him nudging and gripping Swetha's body at the venue of the President's Trophy Boat Race in Kollam on November 1, at which she was the chief guest. The molestation became news after Swetha complained to the district Collector and informed the media. The Collector, for obvious reasons, later denied receiving any complaint. The police refused to register a case even after Swetha revealed the ordeal she had to suffer from Mr Kurup, who was one of those who had sat in the lok Sabha to amend the law on sexual atrocities against women in the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape case. The Congress leadership remained silent when its functionaries, MlAs and MPs continued their vicious attacks against Swetha by saying how she deserved to be molested after she allowed herself to be filmed during her delivery and appeared in a contraceptive advertisement. They even went to the extent of threatening her with Income Tax raids. The Congress had reportedly forced top Malayalam film personalities to warn her on the dangers of taking on Mr Kurup.
Under pressure and after Mr Kurup himself apologised to her telephonically and publicly, Swetha withdrew the complaint she had lodged with the police. But the hypocrisy of the Congress came out in the open again when Mr Kurup said that he had apologised not because he had molested her but because he was an organiser of the event at which the incident took place. As far as the people are concerned, they are not surprised by the approach of the Congress towards the Swetha Menon incident. They have seen how the various systems of the State administration under the party’s rule had colluded in persecuting the victim of the Suryanelli serial rape scandal of 1996 for being firm on her allegation that Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien was one of the 42 men who had raped her for 41 days. But it is highly despicable that a party which boasts of Gandhiji's legacy and is headed by a woman, can be this hypocritical and irresponsible when it comes to the matter of protecting women's honour.
