The continuing protest of the Congress party against actor Joju George was raised in the Kerala Legislative Assembly by his film industry colleague and CPM legislator Mukesh.
In his submission, Mukesh highlighted Joju's plight, claiming that the latter is being threatened by people calling him as producers. Joju’s kids and parents are worried and are even scared to go out of the house.
The Congress workers had recently vandalized Joju’s car after the actor strongly objected the road blockage organized by the party to protest hike in fuel prices.
Mukesh said that he was moving the submission to request the government to take strong action against those who try to disrupt shooting and to create problems in the cinema industry.
“No one is against democratically organizing strikes or protesting. However, targeting artists have become a trend lately. From the Jnanpith Award-winner MT Vasudevan Nair and Phalke awardee Adoor Gopalakrishnan to poet Kureepuzha Sreekumar and now Joju George, the list seems to get longer. Joju had already made clear that he was not part of any political party. He was expressing his anguish as a common citizen. Moreover, he was highlighting the plight of a cancer patient who was on the way to the hospital for chemotherapy. His protest gained media attention only because he is a celebrity. A few people, who couldn’t suffer this backlash, yelled that Joju was drunk. However, the medical report proved that he was indeed sober. They then called him a goon and falsely accused him of misbehaving with women,” Mukesh said in the submission.
Mukesh also recounted how the Congress workers had vandalized Joju’s car and marched towards the actor’s house. He added that Joju’s kids and parents were scared to go out. Mukesh also called out the Congress workers for derailing the filming of a Prithviraj and Sreenivasan movie.
“What shocks me the most is that Joju has been receiving threatening phone calls. Some people introduce themselves as producers of forthcoming movies. They tell the actor that they are unable to begin the shooting of their movies because of Joju. They are intimidating the actor to withdraw his complaint and issue apology. Everyone knows who is behind all this,” noted Mukesh.
Mukesh accused the protestors of disrupting the filming and denying the rights of the people to work, especially when Malayalam cinema industry is trying to recover from the Covid crisis. He appealed to the government to take strong action against those who try to demoralize the artists and create chaos at their work places.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed the protest against Joju as ‘fascist’ and a serious issue. The Chief Minister, while responding to Mukesh’s submission, said that the government won’t allow anyone to violate the right of freedom of speech and expression.
