Amid the raging controversy over the sexual misconduct allegations against Kerala Congress MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, a female Congress activist has come out with a cryptic Facebook post, stating “Ravana will continue to be a cruel womaniser, even if a million tales are sung about his heroics”.
Without taking Mamkootathil’s name, Tara Tojo Alex, who was the research wing coordinator of the Youth Congress when Shafi Parambil was its president, hit out at the disgraced MLA, who is facing sexual abuse charges from multiple women and a transgender.
“No matter how much you try to whitewash him, no matter how many stories are sung in his praise, and no matter how many Maricha-like deceptions are employed, those who have read Ramayana knows the truth: Ravana was a cruel lecher. How much you try to justify Ravana, highlighting his 'virtues', everyone still knows Ravana fell due to fundamental character flaws, “Tara said.
“The Lanka he ruled and the transient thrones he acquired were not lost merely due to an excessive obsession with one Sita, were they? In various sub-narratives, weren't there the wails of women who wept because of Ravana's lechery?” she asked.
Tara said she only had pride in having taken a public stand against “a certain individual – who went into the inboxes of women from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, engaged in flattery, and then committed aggressions against those who fell for it”. She added that she had duly informed the leadership about the complaints and allegations against him from the first day.
“I only have pity for men who would chant support for such Ravanas even if such aggressions were to befall their own mothers, sisters, wives, or daughters,” she added.
Tara concluded the post, adding that her stance, then, now, and forever, is that Congress as a movement stood above all individuals. “Such 'worm-eaten elements' should be kept a thousand kilometers away,” she added.
Her post comes a day after the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) suspended Mamkootathil from the party’s primary membership following accusations of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards women. KPCC president Sunny Joseph officially stated that Rahul is suspended and does not have to resign from his MLA post, as there are no official complaints registered against him.
The party’s reluctance to fire him by handing him just a suspension had triggered certain sections within the Youth Congress and party, and Tara’s post is indicative of the dissent within the faction.
