It was the ousted LDF convenor M V Jayarajan who on August 29 gave the first official confirmtion that the party was not keen on Kollam MLA M Mukesh resigning his MLA post in the wake of sexual abuse allegations.
Jayarajan but had given a weak defence, saying Mukesh would have "automatically" resigned had the two Congress MLAs who had earlier faced such accusations of sexual misconduct had led by example.
Now two days later, after the CPM State Committee meeting on Saturday, party secretary M V Govindan has restated what Jayarajan had said but has given a more nuanced excuse for not asking Mukesh to quit as MLA.
He said the party did a detailed analysis of the National Election Watch statistics. "We found that 16 MPs and 135 MLAs in the country have been accused of crimes against women," Govindan said. Among them 54 are from the BJP, 24 from the Congress and 13 from the AAP. "Not one of them had resigned their posts," the party secretary said.
Further, he said top UDF leaders in the state like Oommen Chandy, P K Kunhalikutty, A P Anil Kumar, Hibi Eden, Peethambara Kurup and Shashi Tharoor had faced such allegations. "No one had resigned their elected posts," Govindan said.
He said political leaders accused of such misconduct had to resign only if they held an executive position like minister. Such a position had the power to potentially influence a probe against them. He said filmmaker Ranjith was asked to resign because the chairman of Chalachithra Academy was an executive post the party had bestowed on him.
Govindan cited the examples of LDF ministers who had resigned following charges of sexual abuses: P J Joseph, Neelalohithadasan Nadar and Jose Thettayil. "They resigned as ministers but did not quit as MLAs," Govindan said.
He said it was not fair to take a moral stand on the issue. "Mukesh is now only an accused. He has not been convicted. But if he resigns and then is proven innocent, there is a legal bar on taking him back," he said. "If the MLA resigns taking a moral stand, there is no moral code that will allow the post to be restored to him if he is cleared of the charges," Govindan said. Nonetheless, he said the party would not protect Mukesh if he is found guilty.
With this, the CPM has rejected calls for Mukesh's resignation both from its ally CPI and also from its own senior leaders like Brinda Karat. All said, Mukesh has been asked to step down from the committee formed to draft a film policy.
