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CPI(M) leader M M Mani withdraws remarks against woman legislator
M M Mani’s comment against Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader Rema had triggered a big protest and many women leaders had deplored it
Former minister and senior CPI(M) legislator MM Mani on Wednesday withdrew his comments against opposition legislator KK Rema following a ruling by Kerala assembly speaker MB Rajesh.
His comment against Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader Rema has triggered a big protest and many women leaders have deplored it. During a session in the House on last Thursday, Mani said: “That great woman (Rema) became a widow. It is her own fate. We are not responsible for it.”
Her husband TP Chandrasekharan, the RMP founder, was killed by CPI(M) workers in 2012 and many workers were sentenced in the case later.
Though the opposition raised the issue a number of times, he refused to withdraw his statement and later chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan also supported him. But on Wednesday the Speaker ruled that “his comments were not progressive in nature, and it involved negative implications”.
After the ruling, Mani told the assembly that as a Communist, he should not have stated that it was her fate to become a widow. “I should not have stated this. I withdraw my statement,” he said.
Rema said she was happy finally Mani and his party agreed it was “not in good taste” and such moves will help uphold dignity of the House.
Notorious for his foot-in-mouth comments, Mani had stirred many controversies in the past also. In 2012, when he was the Idukki district secretary of the CPI(M), he had said the party often resorted to political killings and had warned that Chandrasekhran’s murder was not the last one. Vijayan was the party state secretary when Chandrasekharan was killed in 2012.
