CPI(M) leader in spot for unsavoury remarks

Idukki (Ker): CPI(M) legislator M M Mani, who is facing flak from opposition Congress-led UDF for his controversial remarks against a woman MLA, courted yet another row on Saturday by making an unsavoury remark against senior CPI leader Annie Raja.

Mani, while reacting to Annie Raja's criticism against him for his recent controversial remarks against RMP MLA K K Rema in the State Assembly, used an unsavoury remark against the CPI leader and said she doesn't know about the issues being faced in the Kerala Assembly as she was based in Delhi. Mani's remarks against the CPI leader, also wife of party's general secretary D Raja, did not go down well with the Left party, which is a key partner of the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF in Kerala with a senior leader accusing him of constantly using such languages against others.

Hitting out at Mani, CPI Idukki district secretary K K Sivaraman expressed hope that the CPI(M) leadership would take steps to prevent him from using such vulgar languages against others in the future. Sivaraman described as "extremely vulgar" Mani's remark against women politicians and said the CPI(M) leader was known for constantly using abusive language and it cannot be considered as a colloquial usage by a common man.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Annie Raja said she could not give a reply to Mani in similar language as she was upholding the politics of the Left in the national capital. Meanwhile, the Congress stepped up its attack against Mani and the CPI(M) leadership over the issue, alleging that his anti-women statements were with the knowledge of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. A day after the opposition protest forced adjournment of Assembly of the issue, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan said Mani had a history of making such anti-women remarks and alleged that they were made with the knowledge of Vijayan.

Referring to Mani's controversial remarks against Rema in the Assembly, Satheesan urged CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and the party's politburo member Brinda Karat to clarify their stand on the issue. "Does the CPI(M) believe that a woman is destined to become a widow? Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and others should clarify their position on this issue," the Congress leader told reporters here. He said if the CPI(M) leadership continues to support Mani and the state party unit which supported his "reactionary views", then it can never claim to be a party which upholding progressive ideology.

The controversial "that was her fate" remark made by Mani against Rema had rocked the Kerala Assembly on Thursday and Friday. Speaker M B Rajesh was forced to suspend the scheduled business and adjourn the House on Friday following opposition protest. A defiant Mani had told the media outside the House on Friday that he stood by his statement and did not have any regret in what he had said.

The veteran, also a minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government, said he could do nothing if the statement had hurt Rema, a first-time legislator and the widow of slain rebel leader T P Chandrasekharan. A CPI(M) rebel, Chandrasekharan was hacked to death in May 2012 after he floated a parallel Left outfit called the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) in his home turf Onchiayam in north Kerala. "I still believe that what I said yesterday was right...I have no regret in what I have said. That's what I felt like saying then...she has been criticising the Chief Minister (Vijayan) and the LDF government in the House for the past one year and four months. We have not said anything against her so far," Mani had said. Satheesan said the Congress-led UDF will protect Rema from the attacks of the CPI(M). —PTI