A day after the CPI(M) accused Congress party workers of circulating videos to slander Thrikkakara bye-election LDF candidate Dr Jo Joseph, his wife Dr Daya Pascal has come out in support of her husband. “Ever since Jo’s candidature was announced, he has had to face cruel cyber harassment. We have never wanted to, or taken the effort to, respond to any of it. This is because an election is not just supposed to be between two people. We have seen it as a healthy competition between ideologies and policies concerning development. But for some days now, this (harassment) has been crossing all lines,” she told media persons on Thursday, May 26.
“As you all know, a fake video is now being circulated in his name. How cruel is this? Ours is a small family. We have two small daughters. Shouldn’t our kids continue to go to school? The election will be over on May 31, and only one candidate can win. That is how elections work, right? But all of us have to live here even after that. Have you noticed Jo ever saying something demeaning against any person or candidate on the opposing side? Is it wrong to expect the same kind of decency from the other end,” Dr Daya asked.
In a press conference organised by Industries Minister P Rajeeve and CPI(M) State Secretariat Member M Swaraj on Wednesday, the leaders had accused the Opposition UDF of hiring a group of ‘cyber criminals’ to target the LDF candidate. “The UDF has crossed all limits of morality”, Rajeeve said. “An obscene video was posted and circulated by some social media pages with the display picture of Congress leaders, with a comment ‘Do you know who this is?’ This clip was then shared with statements like “here is the film with the CPI(M) candidate as the hero”,” he said. The video was also posted with the accompaniment of LDF’s slogan for the Thrikkakara bye-poll campaign ‘Urappanu 100’ (100 for sure).
“They have found a video of a woman and man and portrayed it as if it is a video of the CPI(M) candidate. This is immoral and defamatory,” Rajeeve said. No other political party in Kerala would pull an ill-natured stunt such as this, he further stated, adding that they had filed a petition against the campaign on Monday itself. “They did not even think about the candidate’s family.”
Swaraj showed media persons the print copies of some of the social media pages where the video and comments in question had appeared.