Hema Committee report: Opposition warns Kerala govt of resistance against move to hold cinema conclave

Kerala's Leader of the Opposition warns of resistance against cinema conclave discussing Hema Committee report, citing insult to womanhood.

Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has warned of stiff resistance against any move by the government to hold a cinema conclave to discuss the issues thrown up by the recently released Hema Committee report arguing that such an initiative where the victims are made to sit alongside the alleged perpetrators “amounted to insulting womanhood.”

Minister for Culture Saji Cherian had announced that such a conclave would be held to thrash out solutions to issues raised in the report.

Speaking to the media after a march taken out by the Congress to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office here on Thursday (August 22, 2024), Mr. Satheesan came down heavily on film organisations accusing them of treating the victims of their own fraternity as ‘outcasts.’

“Aren’t they part of the larger film family? It is disheartening to see the fraternity not coming forward in support of the victims,” he said.

Mr. Satheesan shot down the government argument that there was no complaint to register a case based on the Hema Committee report. “The committee report based on statements backed by evidences, including pen drives, of a series of offences is pending before the government. So, to insist that the victims should now file complaints is legally and ethically wrong. WCC (Women in Cinema Collective) has also made the same argument,” he said, while reiterating the demand for a team of senior women IPS officers to probe the allegations in the report.

“We are not demanding to register am FIR straight away, but for the police to launch a probe as mandated under Section 199 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita,” he said.

Asked about Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal contradicting the statement of the Minister for Culture, Mr. Satheesan said the Finance Minister has “merely repeated what he had been saying all along.”