On the 2nd September 2024, the congress-led opposition United Democratic Front in Kerala launched a statewide agitation demanding resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
A group of UDF leaders came together to stage a demonstration outside the government Secretariat, which signified the commencement of the politics that seeks to electorally embarrass the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government for shielding the 2019 ‘Hema Committee report’ which detailed sexual harassment and exploitation in the Malayalam film industry.
The Opposition further sought to make the public relations issues on the charges brought by LDF independent legislator, P.V. Anwar against Mr. Vijayan’s political secretary, P. Sasi and ADGP M. R Ajith Kumar of law and order.
Moving the motion, opposition leader V.D. Satheesan said that Mr. Anwar has ‘justified’ the assertion of the UDF that the CMO has a ‘criminal cartel’ which influenced and coopted the police organs of both executive and internal security for corruption, nepotism, vendetta and self-enrichment in the guise of the law.
Mr. Satheesan said Mr. Anwar’s statement that ADGP directed wiretapping of the ministers in their offices is an accusation that is serious in nature and called for investigations. “LDF Ministers should show the spine to take up the matter with the Chief Minister,” he added.
‘Mr. Anwar’s claims can prove to be dangerous and therefore, a probe has to be conducted to see the validity of such statements’ (On Sunday, CPI State secretary Binoy Viswam also demanded a probe to see if Mr. Anwar’s accusations were true).
Mr. Satheesan expressed that Mr. Anwar’s comment correlating the ADGP, Law and Order, to the name of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim had a very disturbing impact on the society of Kerala.
He noted that Mr. Anwar seemed to have unduly connected the slayings and vanishing of persons to the top level of law and order. “There were questions in the minds of the public, which needed to be addressed.” He said.
The “groveling entreaties” of a senior officer begging Mr. Anwar to leave aside the CAT hearing on the custodial death at the Tanur police station in 2024 will forever remain as ‘cringe inducing and a stain’ on the professionalism and image of the State law enforcement agencies, as rightly observed by Mr. Satheesan.
Gold smuggling scandal
Mr. Satheesan said Anwar had brought back the gold smuggling scandal that haunted Pinarayi’s second government which accused police top heads of ambushing airport smugglers said to have the support of corrupt customs officers sharing the benefits with some officials on top of the pyramid system.
Commenting Upon the Hema Committee report, Mr. Satheesan zeroed in on the fact that the report has been put on hold in order to “shield the great perpetrators”.
He said the reason put forth by the government that the committee advocated for burying the damning report was merely a cover up adopted to protect the recidivist sex offenders in Mollywood.
Mr. Satheesan noted that the release of the censored version of a damaging report led to countless women in the industry coming forward to the police with complaints about violence they had suffered.
It was intriguing how M. Mukesh, Kollam MP, and an actor leaned towards dictating the organizational leadership in CPI(M) as he was a diff-renoted in numerous cases,” he stated.
According to Mr. Satheesan, the Hema Committee and its findings were not created within a vacuum and survivors and materials put before the panel supported its conclusions.
He said among such crimes were listed those against child actors. Responsible people within the state gathered complaints and hard evidence but chose to bypass the law, preventing legal action based on their findings and ensuring the victims of legal malpractice would suffer in silence and inaction with the filth that plagued that industry for years.
‘LDF is in its nature Anti-women’
He wished the State Authorities kept in focus about the fact under heavy personal and professional from the institution, people who were faced with the most terrible consequences, came to tell the committee what happened. “The LDF has shown that it is anti-women, as a matter of fact,” said Mr. Satheesan.
Among others, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty, IUML state secretary P.M.A. Salam, UDF convenor M.M. Hassan, CWC member Ramesh Chennithala, CMP leader C. P. John, G. Devarajan of AI Forward Bloc were present.
