KOCHI: Left fellow traveller Cherian Philip on Sunday stirred up a hornet’s nest, both within and outside the cyber world, with a Facebook post that allegedly painted women politicians in bad light.
Terming the shirtless march taken out by Youth Congress activists in Thrissur recently, in protest against denial of seats, as a ‘model mode of protest’, Cherian said, “all those women who did such acts earlier in a clandestine manner were allotted seats by the Congress.” After the Facebook post appeared, a number of prominent public personalities cutting across gender and politics, including Mahila Congress president Bindu Krishna, decried the comment and termed it as ‘anti-women’. KPCC chief V M Sudheeran said Cherian must apologise for the anti-women statement.
However, the top rank of the CPM appeared to be having a slightly different opinion about the alleged ‘misogyny’ of Cherian, who is also consultant to pro-CPM Kairali TV. Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan, who minced no words in attacking Cherian, termed it as a ‘culture-less act’. Meanwhile, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said, “I don’t think Cherian is a misogynist”.
As the tirade against him picked up momentum, Cherian Philip turned offensive and said, “Congress leaders will put themselves in an embarrassing situation by lodging complaint against me. I am ready to undergo lie-detection test. Let all the truth in my subconscious mind come out, and nobody will be able to blame me,” said Cherian. In another post, apparently in reply to V S Achuthanandan who termed his act as ‘culture-less’, Cherian said, “culture is to speak the truth even at the cost of all the valuables one possesses.”