Protests demanding his resignation over his alleged involvement in the infamous solar scam had forced Kerala’s Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to live like a fugitive by cancelling public programmes and choosing deserted roads for travels in June but even over two months later, he is unable to come out of that life as furious protests against him are yet to end.
What has changed in the meantime is the nature of response of the police towards the protesters while trying to protect him from the black flags and volleys of rotten eggs. It is obvious that Chandy himself has learned the art of being indifferent to the police's repressive methods against protesters or anyone who disturbs his peace on the streets with questions on the solar scam.
On Friday, the police registered a case under non-bailable charges against CPI(M) activist Jayaprasad (32), still undergoing treatment at the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram where he was admitted on Wednesday in a serious condition after being kicked in the genitals by a police sub-inspector during a leftist bid to block Chandy on the road.
That Chandy will have to continue his ‘fugitive’s life’ for some time more is now amply clear with pro-CPI(M) youth outfit DYFI, infuriated by the brutal and unprovoked police attack on Jayaprasad, issuing a threat not to allow him “set his foot on the ground” anywhere in Kerala. “We will not allow him to travel freely in the State,” said a DYFI leader.
The Government’s indifference towards the brutal attack on Jayaprasad by SI Vijayadas of the Poonthura police station in Thiruvananthapuram was clear from the way in which the police top brass and Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan of the Congress responded to demands for action against the officer.
“This Government won’t fall because of a hundred rotten eggs,” was the response of Thiruvanchoor to queries on whether there would be any action against the SI. The police, for their part, booked the victim of their own attack, Jayaprasad, for causing obstruction of police duty and traffic and destruction of public property.
Eminent personalities like Senior Congress leader VM Sudheeran and jurist VR Krishna Iyer and authorities like the State Human Rights Commission condemned the police officer’s attack on the CPI(M) activist but nobody in the Chandy Government had felt the need for issuing even a stock statement like they would look into the matter.
The police’s determination to protect the CM from discomforting situations by any means and his indifference towards use of force on his tormentors had become obvious at Kottayam on Friday when he refused to restrain his security personnel from attacking mediapersons when they asked for his response on some new development in the solar scam.
“It shouldn’t surprise anyone,” said social psychologist BS Panicker. “Rulers anywhere tend to react in this manner when they are nagged perpetually on matters for which they have no explanation. One should assume that Chandy’s impatience and indifference are caused by his own inability to defend himself on solar scam with convincing explanations,” he said.