Why sex is more than a bad word in Kerala

A hapless Chandy claimed he had accidentally dozed off beside his wife, and the lady watching from the other berth who lodged a complaint had misinterpreted the family moment.

To be fair, Chandy was just a victim of the state of affairs that has now made Kerala extremely sensitive to even a wisp of sexual indiscretion.

And while the mother of all sex scams, the Ice-cream Parlour scandal in Kozhikode, involving the State Industry Minister P K Kunhalikutty, continues its political roller-coaster course, it may still be nothing compared to some others.

There is also the fact that few of the accused in these scams have been hauled to the dock, while more continue to make headlines.

‘‘Invariably, the only sexual ravagers that are brought to justice in this state are those who don’t have the clout to manipulate. It is humiliating, frustrating,’’ says K Ajitha, former Naxalite legend of the 1970s Spring Thunder uprising, who had exposed the Kunhalikutty scandal first.

M T Vasudevan Nair, Jnanpith laureate and one of Kerala’s most famous writers, is equally angry.

Highlighting the Kunhalikutty issue, he asks: ‘‘Is Kerala really enlightened, literate? This is a stark lesson in how laws can be sidetracked with money, power and arrogance. We are going to have lot more of stories of brazen sexual exploitation in the state, and stories of the guilty getting away.’’

Then there’s the Thoppumpadi scandal, which had a Kochi college girl being up the sex trail last year. The list of 69 people who allegedly ravaged her over a year included a noted music director, and a venerable church priest. But the chargesheet that the police put up recently had only 13 names, all of the hoipolloi.

The same applied more or less to the Kiliroor sex scam. In this, the victim was a school dropout baited by illusions of becoming a TV soap star. She was taken to hill stations, resorts, temple towns—and set upon by dozens of men.

She died a few weeks back of a prolonged infection, after giving birth to a daughter. Many local VIPs, including the head of a TV channel and a couple of political heavies, figured in the first list of accused. But no one was arrested, and the case has now gone to the CBI.

A spin-off of this scandal was the Kaviyoor scam, involving a young friend of the victim. She and her entire family committed mass suicide, and nobody has been found responsible for that.

The only exceptions to this rule, perhaps, have been the recent Neelalohithadaasan Nadar scandal and the earlier Suryanelli scam.

Nadar, who used to be the forest minister in the last CPM-led government was forced to quit after his secretary, a senior woman IAS officer, alleged that the minister had been trying to more than just paw her.

That followed another lady bureaucrat, from the IFS, alleging that he did the same with her too. In the second case, Nadar, still an MLA, was ordered one year in jail and has since gone on appeal. The first case is still on.

The Suryanelli scandal involved another minor school girl, who was first lured by a local bus conductor and later taken all over Kerala to be raped by some 40 men over 42 days in 15 different places.

The special court formed to try this case convicted 35 of them, though that did not include an MP whose name had figured initially, while many of the others secured bail and some went on appeal. A consolation was perhaps that the state government gave the victim a job.

Not so with the victim in the Vithura scandal. The list of those who allegedly ravaged this school girl on the promise of a job included a Malayalam movie star, and senior Government officials.

The movie star has since managed to obtain a stay from the High Court against the Government decision to hand over this case to the Special Court that tried the Suryanelli case. In short, all the accused are roaming free.

The more recent one involves the high-profile official of Kairali, a Malayalam TV channel. The ‘victim’ herself has made no complaint, but vigilantes in the CPM-owned channel ensured that the official made a humiliating exit.

But then, the Malayali has always been known for his sexual sensitivities. In 1964, the then state home minister PT Chacko was forced to quit after the car that he drove himself hit another one night, and rescuers found a lady Congress leader with him.

Years later, another minister was luckier — his car hit an elephant in similar circumstances, but found the media in a more benevolent mood.