A group of Congress MPs led by K.C. Venugopal on Thursday met Anjuna, a Dalit woman, who attempted to commit suicide at Thalassery in Kannur district last week.
Anjuna, daughter of Congress leader Kuniyil Rajan, is recovering at Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital at Thalasery after she tried to end her life on Saturday night. She had told the police that the abuse and insults hurled at her and her sister by DYFI leaders A.N. Shamsheer and P.P. Divya had forced her to attempt suicide.
CPI(M) harassments
The team, including Anto Antony and M.I. Shanavas, said they would apprise the Congress central leadership of the intolerant levels of harassments the Dalit family had to endure at the hands of local CPI(M) activists at Thalassery.
They also said that the issue would be raised in Parliament, especially in the wake of the Dalit woman going to jail with her 18-month-old child.
Mr. Venugopal said that they had never heard of such an incident before in the State. The Congress leadership would take up this issue at the national level, he added. The attack on the Dalit sisters had broken the belief that women, including Dalits, were safe and did not face discrimination in the State.
A false charge of attacking a CPI(M) office was foisted upon them and remanded to jail, Mr. Antony said.
Mr. Shanavas said the words and deeds of CPI(M) legislators had changed after the Pinarayi Vijayan government took over.
