The withdrawal of a complaint of sexual harassment, lodged by Malayalam filmstar Swetha Menon, against Congress MP N Peethambara Kurup is perhaps proof of how difficult it is, even for a bold and educated woman, to take her battle for justice against her tormentor to its logical conclusion especially when he is a senior politician enjoying the total support of the ruling party.
Swetha said that she decided to pardon Kurup after he apologised but if there is any truth in the rumours that are doing the rounds in Kerala’s political circles, pressures and enticements from the part of Congress leaders and threats that included the possibility of Income Tax raids on her could have played a pivotal role in it.
Swetha’s announcement to withdraw the complaint came late Sunday evening, just hours after she had formally submitted it to the police officials and they reiterated it to the media that she stood by the allegation, she had leveled against Kurup on November 1.
Announcing her decision to pardon Kurup, Swetha told the media in Bangalore, “I am not allowing myself to be made into an example.” She said the consequences of going ahead with a fight like this would be hard. “Our laws are strange. The victim herself will have to provide evidences. Those who do such things would not leave proofs behind,” she said.
According to the award-winning actress, Kurup, now 73, had sexually harassed her during the President’s Trophy Boat Race in Kollam on November 1. She was the chief guest at the event. “I was harassed right from the moment I got out of the car and throughout the programme,” she had told the media on Friday without naming Kurup.
Video clippings of the event suggested that the man who harassed her could have been nobody but Kurup which led to instant demands for action against him and his resignation. Despite the videographic evidence, Kurup denied Swetha’s charge and his party, especially the Kollam District Congress Committee, put up a determined effort to protect him.
The Congress leadership even went to the extent of refusing to identify Swetha as a victim of harassment saying she was “capable of allowing herself to be filmed while giving birth to a baby”. There were also efforts, particularly from Kollam district Congress president Prathapa Varma Thampan, to question the personal and professional integrity of the actress.
The most explicit “threat” to Swetha came from Thampan who said, “She had chosen to do what crores and crores of women haven’t done by allowing her delivery to be filmed - for how many crores of rupeesIJ She will have to give details of those crores and other crores she has made,” allegedly suggesting the possibilities of IT inspections of her assets and earnings.
Instead of viewing Swetha’s decision to withdraw the complaint as an occasion to feel relieved, the Congress leadership seemed to celebrate it and use it as an occasion for ridiculing the actress further. Thampan said that Swetha’s withdrawal should serve as a lesson to all women who leveled allegations like this.
Equally curious was the relative silence adopted by the film fraternity with regard to the humiliation meted out to the famous actress. It is now rumoured that Swetha would have got isolated in the film industry had she decided to go ahead with legal action against Kurup, as admitted by producer liberty Basheer.
Dubbing artist Bhagyalakshmi said that there was no wonder that it ended like this. “It is in this situation that I am sympathising with the victim of the Suryanelli serial rape scandal (in which Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien is allegedly involved) who has been fighting for justice for the past 18 years,” she said.