PALAKKAD: Senior CPM leader and central committee member P K Sreemathi has issued a pointed warning that the party has a history of taking stringent action against those accused of sexually harassing women, regardless of their position or standing, in a veiled reference that comes amid allegations surrounding E N Suresh Babu who was removed from the post of Palakkad district secretary on Sunday.
Sreemathi’s comment — on her Facebook page on Wednesday in which she has restricted comment section — comes at a time when party state secretary M V Govindan asserted repeatedly that no complaint had been received against Suresh Babu.
Though Sreemathi, the former health minister, did not name anyone or make a direct reference to the Palakkad developments, the timing and tenor of her Facebook post has triggered speculation within party circles. The post comes days after Suresh Babu was removed from the post of district secretary at the CPM’s extended district committee meeting, where the leadership change has already exposed differences over the circumstances that led to his removal.
“Let me make one thing clear. The CPM has a tradition of taking uncompromising action against those who sexually harass girls or women, however high their position may be. If there are still people who have not remembered this, the only thing that can be said now is ‘Vinaashakale vipareetha buddhi’ (Those facing their own downfall often lose the wisdom to act prudently),” Sreemathi wrote.
Suresh Babu was removed as Palakkad district secretary at the extended district committee meeting held on October 3 and 4. According to party sources, he was removed from the post following a complaint given by a woman advocate to the party central and state leaderships alleging that Suresh Babu behaved inappropriately to her at the CPM district committee office, when she had arrived to attend an organisational conference. She has alleged that she was subjected to persistent harassment over the phone for nearly a year.
The official explanation offered by Suresh Babu and the district leadership was that he had stepped down citing personal reasons. However, CPM state committee member and one of the senior-most leaders from Palakkad N N Krishnadas subsequently maintained that the change was a decision taken by the party. Meanwhile, party sources said that Suresh Babu is all likely to be suspended from the party or at least demoted to lower committee.