It is now almost clear that the CPM will not ask for the resignation of its Kollam MLA M Mukesh, against whom a non-bailable case has been charged based on a sexual abuse complaint. On Thursday, senior CPM leader and LDF convenor E P Jayarajan gave a politically unconvincing and even untenable reason for the party not asking Mukesh to step down from the MLA post, at least for the time being.
Strangely, Jayarajan did not even say that Mukesh should not resign. The LDF convenor said that Mukesh would have been forced to resign had two Congress MLAs who were accused of sexual misconduct earlier - Kovalam MLA M Vincent and Perumbavoor MLA Eldhose Kunnappilly - resigned. Vincent was arrested in July 2017 after a woman filed a rape complaint against him. Eldhose was accused of repeated rape by a woman in 2022, and a chargesheet was filed against him in May this year.
"These two MLAs were accused of graver sexual misconduct. If they had resigned as MLAs, the third (Mukesh) would have had to automatically resign," Jayarajan said. In other words, the LDF convenor was saying that the CPM, for the moment, was happy to remain stuck in the moral standards set by Congress. The CPM is in no mood to set a new moral code in politics.
Interestingly, the Congress, too, is not keen. Mukesh's resignation is not one of the demands that the Congress will raise as part of its 'Action on Hema Committee Report' agitation.
Jayarajan told the media that it should apply the standards of propriety it had applied for the Congress MLAs to the CPM MLA, too. He turned the tables on the media. He said the media was trying to protect the hunters by not calling for the resignation of Vincent and Eldhose.
He also sought to disengage the charge against Mukesh from the Hema Commission report. "The case against Mukesh is not based on Hema Committee findings but on a separate complaint," Jayarajan said. "The government has initiated stringent and exemplary action against all cinema-related complaints that sprung from the Hema Commission report," he said.
CPM Politburo member M A Baby, too, echoed Jayarajan's sentiments. He also wanted to know why the Kollam MLA was being singled out. "No one had sought resignations when such accusations against MLAs had cropped up earlier," Baby said. Nonetheless, Baby said he did not suggest that the allegations against Mukesh should not be taken seriously. "The LDF and the CPM will take the appropriate decision at the right time," the PB member said.
However, it looks like the CPI could cause serious political embarrassment for the CPM. In all probability, the CPI will formally ask for Mukesh's resignation later in the day. Its National Secretariat member, Annie Raja, already has unequivocally called for Mukesh's resignation. "Mukesh should resign as MLA without much delay. He should take moral responsibility for the allegations and face a probe. CPM should take action to remove him from the post. If Mukesh continues as MLA, it will affect the probe into the sexual assault allegations and Justice Hema Commission report," she said. She also said that it would be unsustainable to hold on to the excuse that Congress MLAs had not resigned before in the face of sexual abuse allegations.
