The injuries sustained by Kerala health minister Veena George on Wednesday, amid protests by Kerala Students Union (KSU) at the Kannur Railway Station, have sparked a political blame game in the state.
Visuals from the scene show George nursing her neck after KSU protesters at the station suddenly rushed forward just before she could board a Vande Bharat train. She had come to Kannur for the inauguration ceremony of the International Ayurveda Research Institute, among other things.
"CM, my neck is in a lot of pain. There was a lot of pushing and shoving when I was coming in," the health minister told Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan from the district hospital, as per a Manorama Online report.
"The KSU attack on Health Minister Veena George in Kannur is an example of Congress's dirty politics ... The Congress leadership should not think that they can disrupt law and order or create riots in the country by leaving their followers in the lurch ... This is an attack on women," CM Vijayan wrote in a Facebook post.
However, KSU State Vice President P. Muhammed Shammas has dismissed the attack allegations, saying that her neck and hand injuries were all a performance.
"The award for Best Actress belongs to only Veena George," he wrote in a sarcastic Facebook post, criticising the health minister.
He also claimed that only four KSU workers had rushed forward towards George, while she had allegedly 50 policemen around her, questioning how she could have been injured.
The railway station protest is the latest in a series of black flag protests against the health minister in various parts of Kannur, demanding her resignation.
The protests intensified after CPM workers allegedly attacked a Muslim Youth League worker—identified as its District General Secretary Shajeer Iqbal—after one such black flag protest in Peringome.
The protests demanding her resignation also come as she faces heavy flak over the 2021 medical negligence case involving the Alappuzha Government Medical College, which came to light earlier this week.
A pair of surgical forceps were found in the abdomen of 51-year-old Usha Joseph about five years after her surgery in 2021, which shocked the state and led to major backlash against George.
The death of a newborn baby at a hospital in Nedumangad earlier this week, due to alleged medical negligence and bribery, has also contributed to the backlash.
However, the state government has maintained that these were only isolated incidents, and that Kerala still had "the best health sector in India", as per CM Vijayan's post.