Thiruvananthapuram: The CPM and the Congress handle the sexual allegations against their leaders differently. While the CPM has an internal commission, the Congress does not have any such mechanism and leaves the matter to the courts to decide.
Though a cross-section of Congress leaders has welcomed the CPM state committee decision to suspend their MLA P. K. Sasi, who has been allegedly invol-ved in a sexual harassment case, many have flayed the CPM for giving him a mere six month’s suspension.
When Kovalam MLA M. Vincent of the Congress was arrested on a sexual harassment case, the party remained mum and didn't initiate an internal inquiry. Recently, criminal proceedings were initiated against former chief minister Oommen Chandy and former union minister K. C. Venugopal on a complaint lodged by Saritha S. Nair, the prime accused in the solar scam. The FIR accused Chandy of having unnatural sex with Saritha at his official residence at Cliff House in 2012. Venugopal who is also an AICC general secretary was accused of having sex with her at multiple places, including at the residence of former UDF minister A. P. Anil Kumar.
The Congress had discussed the solar issue in various party forums but did not form an internal commission. Mr Dean Kuriakose, Youth Congress state president, told DC that his party hands over the sexual harassment cases directly to the police.
“When a sexual harassment case came up against Vincent, the KPCC alleged that the case was plotted by by CPM Neyyatinkara MLA K. Ansalan. In the case of Sasi, the complainant had not approa-ched the police for fear of CPM reprisal,” he said.
He added that DYFI Irinjalakuda leader, Jeevanlal, had misbehaved with a female colleague belonging to Kattoor in Thrissur while on a visit to the capital city. The girl was warned not to tarnish the image of the party.
Bindu Krishna, Kollam DCC president told DC that Congress doesn’t have an internal committee to pro-be sexual harassment cas-es. “After the Nirbhaya case, the government came up with stricter rules. In Sasi case, Law Minister A. K. Balan headed the party’s inquiry commission. But instead of taking steps to arrest Sasi, he has been protecting him,” she said.
