Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has demanded, on October 24, an apology from senior CPM leader and former Lok Sabha member N N Krishnadas for calling the journalists ‘dogs’ in Palakkad. KUWJ stated that N N Krishnadas’s behaviour towards the journalists, by equating them with dogs standing in front of the butcher shop, humiliating and shouting at them, is reprehensible.
Earlier in the morning, Abdul Shukkoor, a CPM Palakkad Area Committee member, had declared that he was quitting the party owing to the mental torture he suffered at the hands of the CPM district secretary. The entire media had reported this. That is why Krishnadas got upset and showered abuse on the media persons. Krishnadas shouted that media men gathered in Shukkoor’s house like dogs standing in front of the butcher’s shop. At that time, Shukkoor was with him, who was brought back to the party in the afternoon. Krishnadas had abused the journalists in the morning when they approached him to get more news about Shukkoor’s media bite that he was leaving CPM.
When the media persons told Krishnadas it was not right to call them ‘dogs’, he insisted that he would not desist. KUWJ said that Krishnadas’ behaviour and utterances were obscene, non-standard and unbecoming for the ‘literate Kerala’. KUWJ state president K P Reji and General Secretary Suresh Edappal called on Krishnadas to withdraw the deplorable statement. N N Krishnadas was going ahead with his misbehaviour despite his party workers’ attempt to stop him. Media persons carry the news concerning the candidates of all Fronts during the election period in equal dimensions. When tremors and landslides take place in parties and Fronts, they naturally come out as news. KUWJ alleged that the people who keep on claiming that they stand for freedom of expression and freedom of the press lose their temper when they face questions and comments and hence, behave recklessly.
People of Kerala are not surprised to see and hear Krishnadas’s performance. Because they do not expect anything more. It is not easy for them to forget the rudest form of similar behaviour from Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister and the supremo of Krishnadas. Pinarayi once shouted at the media persons ‘Get Out’ when they went to report a meeting. Later on, it was clarified that the meeting was confidential. But, Krishnadas shouted that they should realise that he is ‘different from others’.
Later on, reports from Palakkad suggested that Shukoor had been shifted by the CPM workers to somewhere else, to make sure that media men did not contact him.
Krishndas is a CPM leader from Palakkad district. The bye-election tempo is picking up in full swing, and the BJP is all set to win the sitting Congress seat of Palakkad. Another bye-election to the legislative assembly is at Chelakkara, Thrissur district. A mega fight is also taking place at the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency where Priyanka Gandhi, BJP’s Adv Navya Haridas and CPI’s Sathyan Mokeri cross swords. Therefore, sincere workers of CPM and CPM-led ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) are upset with Krishnadas because his condemnable behaviour can make much of a difference in this era of social media.
