THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition Leader VD Satheesan has disowned the statements of state Congress working president Kodikunnil Suresh, MP, where he had said that if Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was a Renaissance leader he should have married off his daughter to a person belonging to Scheduled Caste. Satheesan maintained that the controversial comment has not come to his notice and the party does not have a similar stand.
Kodikunnil Suresh made the controversial comment against the Chief Minister in front of the Ayyankali statue at Vellayambalam where he held a fast in protest demanding a CBI probe into the SC/ST fund scam. He also alleged that Pinarayi Vijayan appointed his loyal aide to control a minister who belonged to Scheduled Caste.
“Pinarayi should have married off his daughter to a person from Scheduled Caste, if his concept of Renaissance was genuine. The Chief Minister has been discriminating against backward communities in the cabinet and also in PSC appointments. It should be recalled that senior CPM leader A Sampath was appointed as private secretary to Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan”, said Kodikunnil Suresh.
This is not the first time he had come up with controversial comments as recently he had claimed that Dalit representation has been inadequate in the organisational revamping of Congress party. When Kodikunnil Suresh’s controversial comment snowballed into a major controversy, he still stood firm in his statement. He maintained that it was Pinarayi’s genuineness as a Renaissance leader which he had questioned.
He said Renaissance should be first implemented in his family. But when reporters sought Satheesan’s reaction to his party colleague’s controversial comment, he disowned the statement. However, Ramesh Chennithala, MLA, rallied behind Kodikunnil Suresh stating people are now seeing the real face of Renaissance leaders. Kodikunnil Suresh, who got wholehearted support from state Congress president K Sudhakaran, has not liked the way Satheesan snubbed him.
MIN COMES DOWN ON KODIKKUNNIL
T’Puram: SC/ST Welfare Minister K Radhakrishnan has come down heavily on Congress MP Kodikkunnil Suresh for his statement that if CM Pinarayi Vijayan was a true Renaissance leader he should have married off his daughter to an SC person. Terming it highly inappropriate and unsuitable for modern society, Radhakrishnan said Kodikkunnil should think whether the remark is worthy of his position. “It’s a person’s individual right to marry anyone.
The notion that girls are meant to be married off, is not suitable for a modern society. Each woman has the right to choose whom she should marry or not. Such remarks would only serve to insult women,” he said. Radhakrishnan also rejected the Congress leader’s accusation that the party had entrusted a few persons to keep a tab on him. Party leaders, including the Chief Minister and he himself work, based on the party’s directives and advice. The party doesn’t need Kodikkunnil’s endorsement certificate, he said. Such remarks also reflect the deep state of distress into which the Congress has fallen.
DYFI TERMS REMARK ANTI-WOMEN
The DYFI leadership has termed Kodikkunnil’s remark highly primitive and anti-women. “It’s a person’s individual right to marry anyone. His remark also reeks of anti-women sentiments,” accused DYFI state secretary A A Rahim.