IF CPI(M) leaders in Kerala thought that the drubbing in the recent Lok Sabha elections, where the party won just one of 20 seats, was the nadir, they were horribly mistaken. Barely a month after the debacle, on June 18, a young entrepreneur in Anthoor, Kannur, took his life after the municipality ruled by the party refused to give the clearance for an auditorium he had built with his life’s savings. Then came the real stinker. A day earlier, an English daily had published a crime story in its Mumbai edition, which concerned a complaint filed by a 33-year-old woman from Mira Road. She accused a certain Binoy Vinodini Balakrishnan alias Binoy Balakrishnan Kodiyeri of rape and cheating among other things. It did not initially create a stir because the news item did not identify the father of the accused: Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, former home minister and currently secretary of the CPI(M)’s state unit. The moment the identity was known the following day, it became fodder for the media.
The woman, who hailed from a low income family in Bihar, was a dancer at a bar in Dubai when she met Binoy in 2009. According to her complaint filed at the Oshiwara police station, Binoy, who posed as a builder from Kerala, plied her with expensive gifts and compelled her to quit dancing and join him, which she ultimately did. She did not know that Binoy was already married, and that his father was the home minister in the V.S. Achuthanandan government in Kerala. On Binoy’s suggestion, the couple moved to Mumbai, where a son was born to them in 2010. When she renewed her passport four years later, Binoy’s name was added in the space provided for spouse. According to the complaint, things took a turn for the worse in 2015 when Binoy stopped providing for her and disappeared from her life. She hunted him down on Facebook, and sent a legal notice last December, following which Binoy’s mother travelled to Mumbai to broker peace. She failed after the girl allegedly demanded a one-time settlement of Rs 5 crore. The case was registered in the second week of June and all hell broke loose for the Kodiyeri family and the CPI(M).
While Binoy acknowledged that he knew the girl, he refuted the rape charges. He said the girl was trying to extort money from him. Binoy has now appraoched the Dindoshi district court in Mumbai seeking anticipatory bail. The court will take up the petition on June 27.
Sources who know the couple said everything went on smoothly so long as Binoy was making monthly payments to the girl. But that stopped as his business in the Gulf floundered. The girl also pressed him to legalise their relationship. All these apparently messed up the relationship which would have completed a decade this year.
Balakrishnan, however, has refused to take responsibility for his son’s alleged actions. “Neither I nor my party will do anything to protect my son. If he has done something wrong, he should pay for it,’’ he said. “How is it possible for a father to know everything that happens in the personal lives of their children?’’
Binoy went incommunicado as a Mumbai Police team reached Kerala looking for him. Lokanath Behera, director-general of the Kerala Police, did not respond when asked about the case. “It is not our case,” said Behera. “I cannot comment.”
The CPI(M) cadre, however, are fuming. “The party has lost face. After the election drubbing, we all were desperately trying to keep up the morale of ordinary workers. And then, such nasty issues come up,’’ said a former leader of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), who is very close to the party leadership. “Binoy is the son of the state secretary of the CPI(M) and the party cannot just wash its hands of the issue just like that.’’
But this sentiment is not shared by the top brass, at least not officially. “Binoy is an adult and he lives independently. How can his acts be used to criticise the CPI(M),’’ asked P. Jayarajan, who, till recently, was the Kannur district secretary of the party. “Our party secretary has made it clear that the party will not support him.’’
This is not the first time that Balakrishnan’s sons have caused trouble for the CPI(M). Last year, Binoy’s name figured in a financial dispute with an Arab entrepreneur, who lodged a formal complaint against him. That matter was settled after much effort. His younger brother Binesh, too, had been allegedly involved in financial improprieties.
Adding to the party’s woes, P.K. Shyamala, the municipal chairperson involved in the controversy of the young entrepreneur’s suicide in Anthoor, belongs to the CPI(M) and is married to M.V. Govindan, a central committee member of the party. Similarly, the attack on C.O.T. Naseer, a former member of the party who contested against Jayarajan from the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, has caused further trouble for the CPI(M). The former driver of an MLA was arrested in this connection.
“The CPI(M) has never stooped to this level before,” said state Congress president Mullappally Ramachandran. “In the past, whenever it had made some mistakes, the party leadership used to have serious introspection and would come up with corrective measures. But that is not seen with the present leadership.” Ramachandran said if the party secretary could not control his sons, he had no moral right to head the ruling party. “He must resign immediately,’’ said Ramachandran. Senior BJP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan, too, demanded Balakrishnan’s resignation. “The government should not try to help the culprit just because he is the son of CPI(M) state secretary,” he said.
Political commentator N.M. Pearson said similar developments had taken place in West Bengal before the downfall of the party there. “Nandigram and Singur were party strongholds. At a time when the morale of its cadre is at an all-time low, the CPI(M)’s prime priority should be to save the party, not to protect the relatives of party leaders,” said Pearson. “All these are symptoms of degeneration and the party will eventually pay the price for it.”