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Dalit sisters 'attack' CPM office in Kerala alleging casteist abuse

Dalit sisters attack CPM office in  Kerala

 Infuriated by alleged verbal abuse and persistent casteist comments by party activists, two Dalit women 'attacked' an office of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPM office at Thalasserry in Kannur, considered a red fortress by the party.  The party workers allegedly paid back in the same coin by targeting their father N Rajan, a Congress activist and their house.  However, the exchange of punches has brought the issue of political 'intolerance' once again to the fore in the state.

 

 Akhila and her sister Anjana, who allegedly slapped CPM workers for calling caste and showering verbal abuse, complained that they had always been targetted by the CPM for their father belonged to Congress party in the CPM stronghold.  CPM men used to pass casteist remarks and lewd comments, the sisters said. On Sunday evening, the same story repeated but this time, the sisters were not ready to take it. They went straight inside the party office and questioned the men assembled there.
 

Also read: BJP and CPM locked horns in Kerala over post-poll violence
 

"Our family has been facing the wrath of CPM for past 30 years,  whenever there is a politically sensitive issue we live in fear because the CPM has an overwhelming majority here," Akhila told Asianet News.   On several occasion, we were ridiculed for being Dalits. They used to shower abuses on us and our house came under attack many a time. We used to file cases, but of no use," she said. 

 

"Yesterday we decided to confront them but they attacked us with chairs, and I got injured in the assault. When we got out of the (CPM) office, they stopped us in the middle of the road and threatened. A timely intervention of the police saved us.  After a while, the CPM goons reached our home and assaulted my father. They also vandalised car and window panes. Later, the police took us to a hospital, said Akhila.

 

The CPM workers who gave a different account of the whole episode said that the women entered the office and bashed up a CPM worker, and this provoked a retaliation. 

 

Meanwhile, KPCC president VM Sudheeran has blamed the CPM for the violence and has written a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding action against the political attacks unleashed by CPM after the elections. The LDF government is promoting own brand of fascism in Kerala, he alleged. 

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