Minister for Public Works G. Sudhakaran has said that whoever revolts against the Constitution should be handcuffed and sent to jail no matter howsoever powerful they are.
He was inaugurating a seminar on ‘Post-flood thoughts and construction of new Kerala’ organised by the Kerala Police Officers Association (KPOA) here on Friday.
“There can be no people and no nationhood without the Constitution,” Mr. Sudhakaran said. “Stopping our mothers and sisters for verifying their age was the worst form of religious obscurantism, which was unseen even during the colonial rule. While people supporting it might openly deny their desire for a return to the rule of the king, in their hearts they rooted for it,” he added.
Lashing out at the Pandalam royal family’s perceived arrogance in replying to the Chief Minister, Mr. Sudhakaran accused them of owing their allegiance to the royalty though they were born after the royalty was replaced by democracy.
He warned people to be on the guard against feudal obscurantist elements out to divide them on the basis of caste and communalism, thus sabotaging the unity that helped the State recover from the recent floods.
The Minister said had his party and the successive LDF governments not supported the entry of women of all ages to Sabarimala, then at some point historians would have castigated them for not supporting the progressive march of society.
Hinting that the government and the party were set to go all out in exposing how society had shed many regressive customs by the wayside in its progressive march, Mr. Sudhakaran said the State was gearing up to celebrate the anniversary of Temple Entry Proclamation, which falls on November 12, in a grand manner.
People should not forget that there was a time when young girls who were forced to marry much older Brahmins were relegated to the dark corners of Brahmin Illams on being widowed, he added.
In a veiled criticism of those who opposed salary challenge, Mr. Sudhakaran said the contribution to flood relief was inversely proportional to the income with people, as people with very little income contributed generously, while well-paid people remained reluctant to contribute.
He said while 80% of government employees had contributed under salary challenge, only 50% of teachers and 30% of college teachers had done so.
D.K. Prithviraj, president, KPOA, presided. Murali Thummarukudi, chief of disaster risk reduction at UNEP, spoke.
