Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President K Sudhakaran, on Sunday, October 16, once again found himself in a tight spot for making an insulting remark in an interview. This has erupted into a political row, forcing reactions from leaders of the CPI(M) and the BJP. Sudhakaran later apologised for the comment in which he made an apparent insult to the people of south Kerala while bringing Ram, Lakshman and Sita, the mythological characters from the epic Ramayana .
In an interview to the New Indian Express the Congress Chief made a comparison between southern and northern Kerala that raised eyebrows. The question was regarding how different are the politicians from southern Kerala from their counterparts in the Malabar region (North Kerala). To this, Sudhakaran replied: “yes, there are historical differences. I will share a story. Lord Rama was returning from Lanka, after kiling Ravana, along with his brother Lakshman and wife Sita in Pushpaka Vimanam. When the vimanam was passing through the southern parts of Kerala, Lakshman thought of pushing his brother to the sea and going away with Sita. But by the time he reached Thrissur, there was a change of mind. He felt remorseful. Rama patted him on the shoulder and said, "Yes, I read your mind. It's not your fault. The fault lies with the land we covered... (laughs out)”.
The ruling CPI(M) reacted to this saying that a state should not be divided in the name of south or north. MV Govindan, state Secretary of the CPI(M) said that people should not be judged with the place they belong to. "Leaders should try to make people united, not divide them on the basis of region. We should not try to divide the state into two or three parts. Any political party or leadership should try to build up unity," he said.
Minister for Education V Sivankutty said that Sudhakaran's reaction is a breach of oath of office. "People's representatives should be those who upheld the unity of the country, they should treat all the Indians alike. With the statement Sudhakaran has called for a riot and made an attempt to divide the people of the state into two," Sivankutty said in a statement. The minister also asked for the opinion of senior Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala on it. He added that an apology won't work in issues like this.
Minister for Registration VN Vasavan said that Sudhakaran's statement can never be accepted. "The politics that says that one place and its people in Kerala are bad while the other region and the people are good should be boycotted," Vasavan said in a Facebook post.
K Surendran, President of the state BJP said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should sack Sudharakan from the post. He said that Sudhakaran's comment misinterpreted the Ramayana and insulted the southern part of the state and hence is condemnable. "Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor should make his stand clear on this. What Sudhakaran said was that people including VD Satheesan (the opposition leader hailing from Ernakulam which comes under the southern part of the state) are not trustworthy. Sudhakaran has totally lost the sense of history, he said.
Sudhakaran later withdrew the comment and apologized. "The story is one in circulation in the land. There was no bad intention while saying that. I apologise if I hurt anyone and withdraw that comment," he said.