Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran has said that the views aired by Congress leader and Member of Parliament K. Sudhakaran on the Suryanelli rape victim are personal and not the official stance of the Congress.
Speaking to reporters here on Monday, Mr. Ramachandran said there was no point in Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala saying that he was not aware of Mr. Sudhakaran’s statement. The KPCC chief should speak up whenever necessary and should not keep mum on critical issues at crucial junctures. It is the responsibility of Mr. Chennithala as KPCC president to make the party’s stance clear when a situation arises. “Keeping mum at junctures like this would do no good to the party,” he said.
Stating that there are no two opinions in the party on the need to enact a stringent law to check the increasing acts of violence against women, Mr. Ramachandran said the party, as a single unit, is trying to get the law passed as early as possible.
Mr. Ramachandran, who maintained that the Union government had not received any official confirmation regarding any serious threat of Maoists in any parts of the State, said that States including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, however, have been directed to keep a close vigil of the situation and take necessarily action then and there if any such confirmation is made. There is no denying the fact that Kerala is home to certain Left extremist groups, but no outfit has been able to make any significant inroads into the State, Mr. Ramachandran said.
