Kerala: Sisters fight political rivals for survival

Kannur: The four daughters of a Congress worker in Kuttimakkool, Thalassery, have braved the attacks from his political rivals and challenged their muscle power.  Unable to put up with the harassment from the CPM activists, two daughters of  the Congress man, N. Rajan,  went to the CPM office on June 11 and questioned the men. Both parties claim that they were attacked. 

The daughters, Akhila and Anjuna,   are in hospital and on their complaint, two CPM workers were taken into custody. For decades,  the four daughters, Akhila, Anjuna, Aghina and Ajish, have witnessed abuse against their father, and many a time  saw physical attack against him. They had not reacted out of insecurity. Akhila and Aghina are married and live in their husbands’ houses, while their younger sisters  Anjuna and Ajish live with their parents.

On June 11,   Akhila had come to stay with her parents. She says that the CPM men attacked  her father and herself, and  even tried to assault her  two-year-old daughter. Anjuna was  injured, while trying to help Akhila.  Rajan’s family complain that they were called their caste names to insult them. It is after this   that the daughters  went to the CPM office to question the attack.

According to Akhila, they were tired of the continued abuse and wanted to make the party men realise that they too can react. “This is a CPM majority area. My father is a Congress worker and our parents had contested in the local body elections. For more than 30 years, I have been witnessing attacks on my father. During every election time, we fear some kind of attacks,” said Akhila.

However, CPM area committee secretary M.C. Pavithran says that the allegations are baseless and aimed at tarnishing the image of the party soon after it came to power. “The women attacked the comrades after entering the party office. However, they complained against some of the party workers, who were not even present at the scene,” said Mr Pavithran.