Hema Committee report: Opposition ratchets up demand for police probe into criminality documented by panel

Hema Committee report: UDF demands all-women IPS team to investigate Kerala cinema industry sexism, while LDF accused of shielding predators.

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition in Kerala on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) further ratcheted up its increasingly strident demand for the constitution of an all-women team of IPS officers to investigate the findings of the K. Hema Committee.

The enquiry panel documented in distressing detail instances of pervasive sexism, toxic masculinity, sexual exploitation, casting couch culture and poor workplace conditions women endured in the Malayalam cinema and serial industry and submitted its report to the Kerala government in 2019.

The Kerala government released a redacted version of the report in the public domain on Monday (August 19, 2024) following years of legal wrangling.

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan slammed the government for allegedly attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the public by falsely blaming the enquiry committee for not providing empirical evidence to take cognisance of the recorded offences.

Mr. Satheesan accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of “shielding influential and moneyed predators” in the entertainment industry by failing to act on the report for nearly five years.

In stark contrast, Mr. Satheesan pointed out that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had persuaded the prime accused in the solar scam, a woman, to write a false sexual harassment complaint against Congress leaders with an eye on the 2016 Assembly elections.

The LDF resorted to political skulduggery by handing the dubious complaint to the CBI on the eve of the elections to denigrate the UDF in the public eye. The CBI later dismissed the complaint for want of evidence, he said.