Televised images of a working woman picking up an argument with Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] activists blockading the Cliff House road seem to have struck a chord with a cross-section of apolitical urbanites.
The video showed the woman, a resident of the locality, decrying the protest, stating that she has had a difficult time accessing her home ever since the CPI(M)’s symbolic siege of the Chief Minister’s residence began on Monday.
She said managing her home and dropping her children at school had become a bother ever since the police blocked the way with iron barricades claiming that the CPI(M) men were likely to trespass into the Cliff House compound. A CPI(M) activist, who tried to shout the woman down, had to beat a hasty retreat in front of her tirade.
CPI(M) district unit secretary Kadakampally Surendran blamed the police for putting the local people to difficulty by barricading the road. He said the CPI(M) had stated much in advance that the siege was symbolic and would be peaceful. The police were trying to turn public opinion against the party’s campaign against the Chief Minister through such measures.
The woman later told television newsmen, who tracked her home, that the CPI(M) and the police were equally to blame for the plight visited on home-makers like her through such protests.
