Protests raged across Kerala on Sunday over the obscene remarks made by CPI(M)’s Power Minister MM Mani against Penpilai Orumai (Women’s Unity), a forum of poor woman tea estate workers of Munnar, and their struggle in 2015 demanding higher wages and bonus which was praised the world over as legendary. The women’s forum launched an indefinite protest in Munnar demanding direct and unconditional apology from Mani.
The BJP-led NDA called for a day-long shutdown on Monday in Idukki district in which Munnar falls and the Youth Congress would observe Monday as Black Day in the district. leaders from all political parties, including Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, slammed Mani for his derogatory comments against woman workers and womanhood.
“We will continue our protest till Mani apologises to us,” said Gomathy Augustine, leader of Penpilai Orumai, starting their stir in Munnar. The police’s efforts to remove the woman workers by arresting them were foiled by local people including taxi and autorikshaw drivers. One woman worker, Rajeswari, had to be shifted to hospital after she collapsed on the road.
Mani had infuriated the woman workers and the entire Kerala with a disgustingly obscene statement during a speech at Adimali in Idukki: “Many things had happened during the Penpilai Orumai struggle. Drinking and other dirty things had taken place. The ‘programme’ was in the nearby forest. There was a DySP also. We know everything,” he said.
“We won’t leave Mani just like that,” said Gomathy. “Who is he to term us, thousands of woman workers, as immoralIJ Who is he to judge our struggleIJ Don’t women have the right to agitateIJ Mani, you are a disgrace to the position you occupy, to the party. You should come here and apologise to us,” she added.
Under mounting pressure, Mani, hailing from Munnar itself, offered a light apology - not in front of the women - saying that he did not intend to humiliate women. “A controversy has been created. I didn’t refer to any woman by name. I regret that I am being misunderstood,” he said. However, the protesters refused to be satisfied with the statement.
Even as the Opposition parties demanded expulsion of Mani, infamous for his earlier statement that his party had no aversion to killing enemies, from the Cabinet and initiation of legal action against him, the Chief Minister said that it was inappropriate if he had made that comment. “I can speak more on it only after speaking to the person who made that remark,” he said.
CPI(M)’s State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan indicated that action could be taken against Mani by saying that the statement was inappropriate and that the party’s State secretariat would discuss the matter. Not even a single CPI(M) leader was prepared to defend Mani unlike in the many previous occasions when he had made inflammatory remarks.
Mani had made the derogatory remark against the poor woman tea workers as a sequel to his furious attack against the Revenue Departm-
ent officials who had been leading the anti-encroachment operations in Munnar as part of which a giant Cross installed in a grabbed public land was dismantled the other day.
The Power Minister had gone to the extent of saying that Sub-Collector Sriram Vekataraman of Devikulam, Munnar who had led the anti-encroachment team, should be sent to the asylum. He had also attacked former bureaucrat K Suresh Kumar, who had led the 2007 anti-encroachment drive in Munnar, by accusing him of boozing at the Government guest house there.
Refusing to support Mani over his anti-women statement, Marxist law Minister AK Balan said, “There shouldn’t be a situation where anybody can say anything,” while CPI(M) central committee member PK Sreemathy said, “It is extremely inappropriate for that comrade to make that comment. We can’t justify anyone who humiliates women and womanhood.”
The Chief Minister should expel Mani, who spoke anything he wanted to speak, said Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, adding that a case should be registered against him as he had committed a criminal offence by offending women’s modesty. BJP’s State general secretary Sobha Surendran also demanded expulsion of Mani from the Government.
Mani had invited serious criminal charges and organizational action in 2012 by publicly stating that the CPI(M) used to physically eliminate its adversaries as per prepared hit-lists.
“One, two, three, four… The first one was shot dead. The second was beaten to death while the third one was stabbed to death,” he had said in a speech in Thodupuzha on May 25, 2012.