Women MLAs of Left Front complain to DGP over 'sexual harassment'

The MLAs complained of sexual harassment from four UDF MLAs during the March 13th ruckus in Kerala Assembly

Four Left Front Women MLAs of Kerala today filed complaints with the state's DGP, against four ruling front MLAs, M.A. Wahid, K Sivadasan Nair, A T George and Dominic Presentation, who had allegedly misbehaved with them during the ruckus in the Assembly on March 13. The women MLAs, Jameela Praksam, K K Lathika, K S Saleekha and Aisha Potti met the DGP and submitted the petition against the sexual abuse they had experienced in the assembly. E S Bijimol, another opposition MLA, already filed a complaint with the DGP on last weekend. Jameela Prakasham had told that the women legislators were determined to move against the outrages of the UDF MLAs in question.

Kerala political scene is now hovering around the alleged attack and molestation attempt by a section of the ruling front MLAs and a minister, against five women legislators from the opposition benches. The issue is hotting up as CPI(M) had already taken up the issue with the National Women's Commission and is the prime issue being discussed over local media since the last ten days.

The women legislators said that they had approached the police as they were not getting justice from the Speaker. The assembly had suspended five opposition MLAs for their vandalism and for destroying speaker's dias. However, the speaker did not take action on the complaint filed by Jameela Prakasham on the 13th itself. The opposition had alleged that the speaker is acting as a puppet of the ruling UDF. A section of the ruling front MLAs distributed sweets inside the house after the budget presentation, which is against the rules of the assembly, but the speaker said that he had not seen that.

On 16th of this month, Jameela and other women legislators had explained the manhandling and sexually oriented actions against them with the help of 140 photographs. They said that they were abused by the ruling front MLAs and were forcefully stopped in the assembly hall. Jameela even alleged that Sivadasan Nair's, a Congress MLA, actions had deliberate sexual intention. In retaliation to this, Sivadasan Nair presented video clippings before media persons in order to prove his innocence. Chief minister Oommen Chandy also rejected the allegations of the women MLAs, saying that it was a politically motivated.

Earlier, keeping up the pressure on the government, Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan had asked Speaker N Sakthan to forward the complaint of LDF women MLAs to the police for further action.