Giving a new turn to the issue of the March 13 ruckus in the Kerala Assembly, lDF MlA Jameela Prakasam of the Janata Dal (S) on Tuesday brought out photo evidence to show how she and other woman legislators of the Opposition were sexually harassed by Congress MlAs while Chief Minister Oommen Chandy watched.
The Congress-led ruling UDF had so far been claiming that Jameela Prakasam and other woman MlAs were sent by the CPI(M)-led lDF to the Treasury benches to attack the Chief Minister and that the UDF MlAs had only been trying to protect him. Jameela claimed that at no point she or other woman members had tried to hurt Chandy.
Jameela, MlA from Kovalam, had on March 13 itself submitted a formal complaint to Speaker N Sakthan (of the Congress) about the harassment she and others suffered from Congress MlAs K Sivadasan Nair, Benny Behennan and Dominic Presentation but he had chosen not to take action on it or to hand it over to the police, triggering suspicions about his impartiality.
Showing frame by frame the clippings of a photo and giving a second-by-second account of the incidents in the Assembly on March 13 to newsmen, Jameela explained how Sivadasan Nair had attacked her sexually while Behennan and Presentation encouraged him. “He was not protecting the Chief Minister. He was deliberately misbehaving with me,” she said.
The photo showed how Nair, MlA from Aranmula, had pursued Jameela, the senior-most woman member of the 13th Kerala Assembly, with indecent acts amidst the confusion despite the protests from herself, other woman lDF MlAs like Geetha Gopi, ES Bijimol and Aisha Potti and senior lDF leaders like C Divakaran of the CPI and Mathew T Thomas of the JD(S).
However, Nair reiterated that he had not assaulted Jameela. “The photo she presented to the Press has been manipulated,” he said. The Chief Minister has already given a clean chit to Nair. Jameela showed video clippings to show Bijimol crying out loudly while allegedly being assaulted by another Congress MlA.
“I kept asking Sivadasan (Nair) to free me. I warned him that I would bite him if he did not stop his indecent acts. But he did not withdraw. Then I bit him in the shoulder. That was the use of the faculty the Nature has given me for use in urgent situations. Even after I bit him, he did not stop what he was doing,” Jameela said, pointing at the visuals that supported her allegation.
About the offer of Chandy that a decision on the Opposition’s complaint about harassment of woman MlAs could be taken after a joint review of the photos, Jameela asked, “Is the Chief Minister asking us to watch this photo togetherIJ Is this fir to be a family TV serialIJ Will he sit with Mariamma (his wife) and children to watch thisIJ”
Five lDF MlAs were suspended from the House for the remainder of the Budget Session over the ruckus on March 13 but the Speaker had taken no action against any of the UDF members though videos showed many of them indulging in acts of indiscipline, violation of House rules and celebrations inside the Assembly.
Jameela said the Speaker had failed to fulfill his duty by not acting on her complaint and by not forwarding her formal complaint about sexual harassment to the police though he had allowed the registration of a police case against lDF members for destroying public property by indulging in vandalism on the Speaker’s dais.
She addressed the Press in the presence of the other leftist woman legislators and Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, who read out the full text of his speech in the Assembly on Monday in which he likened Sivadasan Nair to Dussasana. Parts of the statement were expunged by the Speaker citing alleged obscenity. “Will he now ban the word Dussasana itselfIJ” he joked.