The spar between District Collector N. Prashanth and M.K. Raghavan, MP, reached a new high on Friday.
The Collector posted a picture of a ‘Map of Kunnamkulam’ on his personal Facebook page in response to the MP’s demand on Thursday that Mr. Prashanth publicly apologise (‘map’ is apology in Malayalam) for his comments on the page earlier that the MP had threatened staff at the Collectorate.
The MP had told reporters on Thursday that the Collector had insulted him by making false allegations on the social media, adding that the latter was not behaving in a manner befitting a Collector. He blamed the Collector for the incomplete state of many projects under the MPLAD scheme, alleging that Mr. Prashanth had failed to reply to his letter demanding details of the projects within the stipulated time. He said the Collector was personally targeting him by ordering re-inspection on some projects repeatedly, thus delaying the implementation.
The Collector, in return, commented that he had acted only as per rules. However, his ‘map’ post on Facebook was a huge hit among his followers on social media. The post had the effect of a troll for those familiar with Malayalam cinema. In one of her memorable roles, the late actor Philomena, who plays a mentally unstable woman, shouts at a salesman for selling maps that did not have Kunnamkulam marked on it. The Collector’s supporters connected the scene to his post of ‘Map of Kunnamkulam’.
