The CPI(M) legislator M.M. Mani’s comments against MLA Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI) leader K.K. Rema has triggered a furore in Kerala. Mr. Mani, who represents the Udumbanchola constituency in Idukki and who was Electricity Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government, is not new to controversy. But Mr. Mani, popularly known as Maniyasan, remains unrepentant and refuses to admit that he has crossed the line of civilised debate.
Mr. Mani’s unsavoury comment that it was Ms. Rema’s fate to become the widow of slain Revolutionary Marxist Party founder-leader T. P. Chandrasekharan elicited a sharp response from CPI leader Annie Raja, leading to an ugly exchange of words between the two alliance partners. The episode provided fresh ammunition for a resurgent Opposition led by the Congress party. Opposition leader V.D. Satheesan said the highly regressive medieval practice of sati too came out of the idea of fate. As Mr. Mani was unwilling to apologise, he said it was up to the Speaker to examine the comments and take a call on expunging them.
Besides lowering the quality of public debate, diverting attention from the State government’s development agenda and making the government’s commitment of ensuring women’s rights sound hollow, Mr. Mani’s comment has also threatened to take the wind out of the LDF’s opposition to the Lok Sabha secretariat’s announcement that certain words and expressions would be considered unparliamentary.
