Despite the outrage his words have triggered, Kerala MLA PC George remains adamant refusing to revoke his statement against the survivor in the actor abduction case.
Kerala Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan has joined the chorus of voices and has now issued a statement condemning George’s words.
“One of the reasons for the Mahabharata war was Dushasana’s act of stripping Draupati, who was the wife of his brother. The end result of it was utter disaster. It is sad that even after so many decades such incidents are being repeated even in a progressive state like Kerala,” Sreeramakrishnan said in a Facebook post.
"The outspoken words that have crushed the agony of a woman who had undergone the rudest of experiences in the vehicle have crossed all the limits. The cruel act that has forced the actor to ask ‘should I have committed suicide’ is spitting on the face of cultural Kerala,” the post reads.
The Speaker goes on to write, “Those who spit on faces shouldn’t forget that there are precedents for how to react on that as well.”
“My head hangs in shame as such statements have come from people’s representatives who are bound to lead society with high moral values,” states Sreeramakrishnan.
PC George, the lone independent MLA in the Kerala Assembly representing Poonjar constituency in Kottayam had accused the survivor in the actor abduction case of lying because she had gone to work the next day. Refusing to express regret, George continued to taunt the survivor, repeating the statement and added that he won’t revoke his comments. The outspoken MLA was recently in the news for pointing a pistol at protesters in an estate in Kottayam.
George’s latest statement comes on the same day that the actor sought the Chief Minister’s intervention in the issue. In a letter posted in the Women in Cinema Collective Facebook page on Tuesday, the survivor wrote: “MLA PC George for the last many days has been passing derogatory remarks about me, so being the CM of our state I would like to invite your attention to this. I cannot explain the mental state I have been in for the last many months after the assault. I feel pressured by insults each moment. A common family like mine, which includes my mother and brother, could not tolerate what happened to me. But I survive out of the thought that I should not break down and should fight it out till the end.”