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‘Stop this drama’: Kerala minister tells protesting widow, triggers row
M Mani has, however, denied the allegation of indecent behaviour on his part. “I told her politely to go and meet the CM rather than enacting a drama,” he said.
A young widow, who has been staging a sit-in protest outside the state secretariat with her two minor children for 10 days, on Wednesday alleged that state power minister M Mani insulted her when she called him up to seek his help, triggering a row.
Mani has, however, denied the allegation of indecent behaviour on his part. “I told her politely to go and meet the CM rather than enacting a drama,” he said.
But the woman has said that he was very rude when she called him on phone.
“He told me not to become a tool in the hands of some and create a drama outside the secretariat. ‘The chief minister is not hanging around with job vacancies. We can’t give you a job in a month. If he had promised something go and meet him rather than enacting a dirty drama’,” she alleged.
She said she called up all the ministers after 10 days of her protest, but only Mani had responded.
Her husband Sanal Kumar, an electrician, was killed after a verbal duel with deputy superintendent of police (DySP) Harikumar who pushed him under a speeding car last month. After absconding for a week, the DySP reportedly committed suicide in his house later.
Following the shocking incident, state police chief Loknath Behra had promised the widow a job and other compensation.
But when she had not gotten even the initial compensation of ₹10,000 announced by the state government, she went to the secretariat with her two children aged below five years and staged a sit-in protest.
Opposition Congress has sought an apology from Mani. “I talked to her and she said the minister was insensitive and rude. He owes an apology to her,” said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.
He wondered how the ruling party was erecting a “women’s wall” over Sabarimala on January 1 when it could not notice tears of a grieving widow.
Mani has stirred many controversies with his foot-in-mouth comments. In 2012, as the Idukki district secretary of the CPI(M), Mani had said that the party often resorted to political killings and warned T P Chandrasekhran’s murder (Marxist rebel) was not the last one. He gave a blow by blow account of how the party carried out these murders.
“We had prepared a list of 13 and killed the first three. The first one was shot dead, second beaten to death and third was hacked to death,” he had said.
When the flood hit the state in August, he had said big floods do happen in every century and it was natural to have enough death and destruction.
