The controversial police action against Jishnu Pranoy’s mother Mahija here on Wednesday has prompted the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to call for a Statewide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Thursday. Malappuram district has been exempted from the hartal in view of the Parliamentary byelection campaign.
The police forcibly removed Ms. Mahija and her supporters when they arrived at the police headquarters (PHQ) to stage a sit-in early Wednesday. Ms. Mahija’s struggle to bring her son’s ‘tormentors’ to justice had cast her under public glare as a symbol of aggrieved motherhood. The television images of her being dragged away by a posse of policewomen triggered a cascade of protests across the State. Jishnu was found hanging in the college in January.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan faced a black flag protest by BJP workers at Karakulam. Opposition student activists blocked police officers from entering the hospital where Ms. Mahija was admitted.
Administrative Reforms Commission chairperson V. S. Achuthanandan “telephoned” State Police Chief Loknath Behera to register his angst.
Mr. Vijayan despatched Mr. Behera to meet Ms. Mahija personally. He later told reporters that a few ‘outsiders’ had tried to hijack Ms. Mahija’s cause for their own political ends. The PHQ was open to complainants. But protests outside its gates could not be allowed.
Mr. Behera echoed the Chief Minister’s view that troublemakers had caused the fracas. He had cancelled a meeting to hear Ms. Mahija. However, the decision to shun the scheduled meeting and stage a indefinite sit-in had come as a surprise.
