CPM fired her for marrying her driver

In Gods Own Country,the liberal and progressive Communist Party of India-Marxist is seeing red over its comrades love marriage.

In Gods Own Country,the liberal and progressive Communist Party of India-Marxist is seeing red over its comrades love marriage. The CPI M,with a history of solemnizing marriages of several comrades in Kerala,could not digest it when it came to Dalit woman panchayat president B Minimoles love marriage to her official driver C Jayan and has asked her to step down from the post for going against the laid down social system.

But a defiant Minimole, the president of the CPI M-ruled Mylom village panchayat in Kollam district,has refused to budge. The families are not against our relationship. Then why does the party want to spoil our life, asks Minimole.

On May 22,several months after the love story began between 25-year-old Minimole and 28-year-old Jayan both belong to Scheduled Tribe category the two tied the knot at a local temple in Kollam with the concurrence of their families.

But her comrades were not impressed and the party area committeethe forum below the district committeemet to discuss the marriage of its panchayat president with her driver. Last Monday,the couple and their in-laws were summoned to the local committee office and the party verbally directed Minimole to resign from her post.

With Minimole refusing to accept the party diktat,she now faces the threat of being removed by her own comrades in the local body. In the 20-member Mylom panchayat,CPI M has 12 members.

None of the panchayat members supported when the party issued the diktat against me. The party wanted me to hush up the relationship until the term of the panchayat is over, she said.

But the comrades have taken a high moral ground and accuse Minimole of going against the social practice.

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A public worker has the responsibility to be a model for others in life. The party is not against love or love marriage. She had not even informed the local people about the marriage. Will society accept if they start living together, CPI M Kollam district secretary and party state committee member K C Rajagopal said.

You can say they are adults and love their right,but why did they not get married with societys approval, he asked.

Minimole said it was a section of society prodded by the party that had been running a dirty campaign against her for being in love with her driver.

The party and a section of society spread stories whenever I boarded the jeep for day time visits along with other panchayat members. In fact,this only strengthened our bonds, she said.

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Minimole and Jayans love story is today threatening their jobs.

He is not on government payroll,but had been working on daily wages for past four years. The party can now invoke the marriage as a reason to deny him the job, said Minimole,who is qualified to teach in lower primary school.