By Aditya Aamir
Can
the police raid the office of a political party if they receive information
that accused named in a criminal investigation are holed up in the party
office? What if the political party happens to be the ruling party and the
Chief Minister is also Home Minister or ‘Police’ Minister? Should the police
officer then take permission from the Chief Minister/Home Minister? What if she
does not do that knowing that every minute lost is every minute gained for the
criminals to escape?
These
questions are being asked in Kerala where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is
also Home Minister and whose current claim to fame is on the basis of his
no-nonsense handling of the Sabarimala women’s entry issue on the back of the
Supreme Court’s decision that women of all age have the right to pray at the
Sabarimala Ayyappa temple. Opposition to the decision was prompt and
overwhelming but Pinarayi Vijayan stood firm and threw the might of the State
behind women’s right.
When
“obstructive forces” lit Ayyappa Jyothi from Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram to
protect Swami Ayyappa’s eternal celibacy, Pinarayi Vijayan responded with the
‘Women’s Wall’ stretching from Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram and beyond.
Everyone clapped and cheered and there couldn’t have been a stauncher supporter
of women’s rights in Kerala than Pinarayi Vijayan. But no, it all was a sham,
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is not deserving of the title, not if he hauls
up DCP Chaitra Theresa John for raiding a CPM District Office in search of
fugitives.
“How
dare you?” is the charge against DCP Chaitra Theresa John. She committed the
blasphemy of raiding the Thiruvananthapuram CPM District Committee Office in
the city around midnight on getting credible information that DYFI activists
who had pelted stones at a police station were holed up there. DYFI activists
stoned the police station after being told they wouldn’t be allowed to meet two
men arrested under the stringent POCSO Act. Post this blatant show of power,
police listed the names of ten accused and went in search of them.
The
morning after the police raid, DCP Chaitra Theresa John was summoned to Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s hallowed presence and given a dressing down by the
Home Minister. According to sources, DCP Theresa John heard Home Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan and gave him time to get the poison out of his system and then
in patient and calm voice told him she hadn’t committed any crime and was well
within the law to go searching for fugitives on the run holed up in hideouts,
it did not matter if those hideouts were offices of political parties. Pinarayi
Vijayan had no answer to that and Chaitra Theresa John walked out head held
high.
But,
did that spare her “punishment”? Not by a long shot. Chaitra Theresa John was
relieved of her post and DYFI and CPM continued to demand that “action” be
taken against her. For what? For not “confirming first” that culprits were
holed up in the party office before mounting the raid! Question is how to do
the “confirming” without making a physical check of the premises, which is what
the police did. The kind of logic by Pinarayi’s party is beyond comprehension
and definitely illogical. Pinarayi does not have the guts or good sense to tell
his party and DYFI activists to shut the hell up.
And
Pinarayi’s Women’s Wall is down in a heap from Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram.
Is this the same man who claimed Guinness Book Record for building the longest
women’s wall? Is this the progressive Navothana Nayakan in the mould of
Ayyankali and Chattambi Swamikal and Sree Narayana Guru: reformers of the 20th
Century? Pinarayi Vijayan is proving that all the hype surrounding him was for
nothing. That at 77, he has not many years left to correct his image but IPS
Batch 2015 Chaitra Theresa John has 35 years no less to make a mark.
Pinarayi
Vijayan is setting a bad example. But communists have always been predominantly
male dominant. Except for Brinda Karat, is there no woman CPM leader of note?
And she maybe made the cut only because she’s wife of Prakash Karat. Communists
whether they be of the Soviet Union of then or China of now do not have any
woman leader to flaunt. Mao’s wife was part of the Gang of Four and she went
out in disgrace. Pinarayi Vijayan had a chance to correct the wrong, but he’s
showing the true colours of the Communist. Chaitra Theresa John is living
example of communist double-speak on women’s rights, and gender justice. (IPA Service)
The post A Crusader’s Double-Speak On Women’s Right appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
