Kerala - Kochi   

Speak up against injustice, Chennithala tells intellectuals

KOCHI: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala has said that the State government and the party heading it were speaking in autocratic language.

Delivering the inaugural address at the 13th commemorative meeting of C.P. Sreedharan here on Saturday, he said the rulers were showing intolerance towards criticism.

A situation had emerged where mediapersons had to live under police protection.

Mr. Chennithala said that such autocratic tendencies had no place in a democratic set-up.

Media acted as a deterrent and political leaders had the responsibility to rectify their mistakes pointed out to them by the media.

The KPCC chief criticised the community of writers and intellectuals for remaining “mute spectators to the injustice taking place” under their very eyes.

The Kerala society, he said, was faced with a dangerous situation where sincere and open responses against wrongdoing were drying up. Mr. Chennithala urged the intellectual community to be impartial and react honestly against injustice.

Reacting against social evils was not the sole duty of politicians, writers and intellectuals also had a similar responsibility. Mr. Chennithala asked whether it was not the duty of the intellectual community to come out in the open against the arbitrary manner in which the voters’ list had been drawn up for the by-election to the Kannur Assembly constituency.

He asked why the intellectuals, who always reserved the harshest of criticisms against the Chief Ministers and leaders of the Congress party, become dormant during Marxist rule.

P.T. Thomas, MP, presided. MLAs K. Babu and V.D. Satheeshan; KPCC general secretary Benny Behannan; DCC president V.J. Paulose; UDF candidate in the by-election to the Ernakulam Assembly seat, Dominic Presentation and Samastha Kerala Sahitya Parishad secretary M.V. Benny, were among those who attended the meet.

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