Crying foul over what is said to be an incident of moral policing, students associated with an artists’ collective, Kalakakshi, have petitioned Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala alleging unprovoked assault by Assistant Commissioner of Police Mattancherry G. Venu early morning on the New Year day. Three members of the group — Anil Xavier, who graduated in fine arts from Hyderabad, besides Manu C.A. and Aun Poulose, both students of RLV College of Music and Fine Arts at Tripunithura — have been admitted to the Taluk Hospital at Fort Kochi after the incident. Lisa Herzeline Raphael, also a student of RLV who was allegedly verbally abused by the police, termed it as a traumatising experience.
Since the City Police Commissioner’s office refused to accept the petition, it would now be sent to him by registered post, said Jasinther Rockfeller, sculptor and a key member of the collective. Commissioner M.P. Dinesh, however, told The Hindu that his office would never return a petition. “While some people would hand it over to me personally, there’s a system of accepting petitions on record and it’s acknowledged with a receipt,” he said. Ever since the Kochi Muziris Biennale came to be associated with the Cochin Carnival three years ago, Mr. Rockfeller has got the contract for making the ‘Pappanji’ being burnt on the New Year night. This time too, some 25 artists under the collective worked for 10 days to make the giant Pappanji.
“On this New Year night, we waited at the beach for the festivities to be over before heading to a restaurant on foot by 2 a.m. for pre-ordered dinner. We were in small groups when police personnel led by Mr. Venu stopped Manu and Lisa who were walking together and hurled a volley of abuses at them. Paying no heed to their words that they were artists who made the Pappanji, the police assaulted Arun and Manu right in friend of a frightened Lisa, who started yelling in fear. The cruel attack, led by Mr. Venu, was absolutely unprovoked,” said Mr. Rockfeller, one of the complainants.
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While the Biennale officials chose to keep a guarded silence on the development, Kochi Biennale Foundation secretary Riyas Komu said he felt hurt about untoward incidents like this happening in frequent intervals. “Personally, as an artist, I feel such incidents will only vitiate the living atmosphere of Fort Kochi. It saddens me that there’s a regularity to such occurrences lately.”
Cochin Carnival adviser P.J. Josey said he had yet to figure out what actually occurred. “I have no idea. I was there till 1 a.m. I have called the others in the Carnival team to discuss and understand the whole issue,” he said.