KOZHIKODE: Forum for Gender Equality Among Muslims (FORGEM), which organised the Equality Conference in Ernakulam on October 5, has lashed out at CPM central committee member P K Sreemathy who skipped the event “after promising to participate even on the day before the conference.”
In a note that is currently being circulated among the members of the organisation, the FORGEM leaders said the inability of senior leader Sreemathy, who is the national president of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), to keep her word is shocking.
People including Rasool Pookutty and Ashique Abu had informed of their inconvenience in attending the programme due to personal difficulties, it said.
The organisers said the CPM leader promised to attend the programme when they contacted her on October 4 and assured them that she would reach Ernakulam the next day morning. But when they called her before the beginning of the function, Sreemathy said she could not come because she had to attend a party programme in Kannur.
The FORGEM leaders said it is discouraging that a national leader like Sreemathy had to change her stance overnight and was constrained not to inform the decision to the organisers.
“If someone like Sreemathy cannot keep her word, what can the women’s organisations expect from the Left?” the note asked.
It added that a minister in the LDF cabinet suggested two years ago that any reformation is possible only if the initiative comes from within the community.
“Does it mean that you (women’s organisations) go ahead with your struggle but we (the government) will continue with our dissociation?” it asked.
The organisation alleged that those in the Left front are evading the responsibility to identify the new voices and stand with them.