Was the BJP district hartal that paralysed Kochi last Wednesday, with its genesis in an alleged case of Dalit harassment and its subsequent fallouts, a mistake?
The BJP on Friday had also staged a dharna in front of Excise Minister K. Babu’s residence at Tripunithura, demanding justice for the second-year Mohiniyattom student of RLV College of Music and Fine Arts who had attempted suicide on February 8. The party’s student organisation, the ABVP, had alleged that her attempt was a fallout of her being harassed because she was a Dalit.
At the root of the issue is some graffiti that allegedly appeared in a girls’ hostel bathroom and the college campus, linking the victim to a senior student of the college.
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Over the last week, the BJP has been reiterating that this was a case of Dalit persecution.
TheHindu received the following responses from those involved, while inquiring into the issue.
T.N. GovindanNamboory,Principal, RLV Collegeof Music and Fine Arts
On February 1, the girl student gave us a formal complaint about her name being inappropriately linked to that of a final-year student in some scrawls found on the campus walls. The boy in question, a former SFI worker, also gave a similar complaint. The College Union, held by SFI, too, wanted to find out the miscreant behind the graffiti. Similar jottings had also appeared in the bathroom of the Kudumbasree-run ladies hostel where the girl was staying. After the complaint was forwarded to the College’s Women Anti-Harassment Cell, her mother and maternal aunt came, seeking our intervention. The complaint said that a telephone call to her fiancé made by someone flagging the graffiti had led to the marriage proposal falling through.
Following the discussions I had with activists of both SFI and ABVP, it was decided that the complaint be forwarded to the police’s women’s cell to trace the miscreant(s) behind the graffiti and the call. The General Body (GB) held on February 8 endorsed this decision.
The Victim
(on phone, to The Hindu )
At the GB, the principal assured action to trace the culprit(s), but the student representatives raised their voice against me… It’s a political issue… caste doesn’t have anything to do with it…
The Victim’s mother
(on phone, to The Hindu )
There were girl students involved. How else could the graffiti have appeared in the girls’ hostel bathroom?
My daughter and the boy mentioned in the graffiti hadn’t even known each other. But it’s not the marriage falling through that tormented us. The college should have taken care to contain the whole thing within. It’s not a caste-borne issue.
From the victim’scomplaint to police
During the college union election, students had complained to the principal and the women’s cell against Kiran Raj, for his condescending comments against women ABVP workers. I was a signatory to that. He had then threatened all complainants of consequences. In the first week of January, the first graffiti appeared on the girls’ hostel bathroom wall. Several demeaning comments appeared on the campus by the following week. I had formally complained but withdrew it at the instance of the college superintendent and teachers who are part of the women’s cell.
M. Baiju Poulose,CI of Police, Hill Palace
Based on the girl’s complaint, we arrested five persons on charges of criminal intimidation and actions intended to insult the modesty of women, who were later released on bail. We have obtained complaints made to the college authorities, besides the complainant’s suicide note and her diary. If there’s any caste angle to the case, it is still being investigated.
C.P. MadhavanNampoothiri, facultymember, RLV Collegeof Music and Fine Arts
The decision to hand over the case to the police women’s cell was taken at the GB after everyone demanded it. We don’t know what happened after that meeting on February 8. At night, some ABVP activists, not her hostel mates, informed us of her suicide bid.
V.M. Junaid,SFI district secretary
We want justice for the victim and have demanded a fact-based probe into this. However, the ABVP attempt is to portray her in a poor light so as to fashion a counterpart to Hyderabad’s Rohit Vemula. If any SFI worker is found to have been at fault, (s)he should be punished.
Shyam Raj, ABVPnational executivecommittee member
The police are in collusion with the SFI activists and have been dragging their feet on the case. They registered a case after a lot of delay. And when they did, they hastily made her sign a statement as soon as she came out of the ICU. We demand that her statement be freshly recorded, with inclusion of the Dalit persecution element, and the accused be booked for abetment to suicide.
L.S. Sheelavathy,faculty and convenerof the seven-memberWomen’s Cell atthe College
We heard the girl in the presence of her class teacher and the principal on February 2. Her mother and aunt too joined her soon. Her mother insisted that we settle the issue within the campus. We sought the telephone number from which someone had allegedly called her fiancé to malign her, but then her mother said the call came from a land line number. Later she corrected herself, saying it was a text message. They never mentioned any caste angle.