A group of women can be seen heckling and verbally abusing another woman, wearing an orange salwar, in a video that's now gone viral in Kerala. One of the women, who has sindoor smeared on her forehead, tells the latter, “Do you know why I am wearing this sindoor? I have two daughters and I don’t want any Kaakan (derogatory term for a Muslim in Malayalam) to touch them.”
“We are Hindus,” the livid women reaffirm loudly, even as they push and shove their target while continuing to shower her with abuses and threats. The woman with the sindoor on her forehead is seen pushing her, while screaming at her.
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This three minute video which has spread like wildfire on social media is from an incident which occurred at the Pavakulam temple auditorium in Ernakulam, Kerala. A pro-CAA meet was organised by the Jana Jagrati Samiti on Thursday at the auditorium, and Thiruvananthapuram native Athira, who tried to disrupt the meeting, was heckled and punched by some of the participants. The main aggressor against Athira has been identified as CV Sajini, state convenor of the BJP Business cell in Kerala.
The video shows Athira standing in front of the dias and asking the participants on stage if they have no shame to be conducting such an event. At first, a few women participants of the meet engage with her verbally, and tell Athira to leave. Later, the video shows all the women outside the auditorium, but by this time the attitude of the seminar participants had become aggressive.
“This was all pre-planned. She kicked the door and came in. She demanded that the mic must be switched off and she asked if I had no shame. If she wanted to talk with us, she could have. But she does not have the right to tell us to switch the mic off,” Sajini told News18 Kerala.
Sajini has filed a police complaint against Athira for entering the auditorium and disrupting the Pro-CAA meeting. Based on her complaint, the Ernakulam North Police station took Athira into custody, but immediately granted her a station bail. Since the incident involved women, the case has now been shifted to an All Women's police station from the Ernakulam North station.
“Based on Sajini’s complaint, we registered a case under IPC sections 447 (criminal trespass) and 294 (b) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place). We are in the process of collecting more details and further investigating the incident,” Circle Inspector of the All Women’s Police Station in Ernakulam North told TNM.
Meanwhile, the Congress Ernakulam committee has filed a complaint against the women who were seen abusing Athira in the video. Further details in the case are awaited.