Hours after CPM state secretary M V Govindan refused to respond to the allegations of sexual misconduct against three top CPM leaders, one of the accused, former finance minister T M Thomas Isaac, faced the media and said Swapna was a pawn in the hands of the BJP.
"This is all part of the BJP's political agenda," Isaac told reporters on Sunday. He refuted the charge that he had invited Swapna Suresh to visit Munnar. "Will any minister in his right mind invite someone for a pleasure trip to Munnar, that too to a place with not enough accommodation facilities. Is it even logical?," he said.
Further, he said Munnar was a place he had never visited during his time as minister. "Not even once. I checked the records," Isaac said.
Nonetheless, the former finance minister said that he might have invited the consul general to Alappuzha or the boat race during an official lunch attended by UAE officials and top KIIFB officials. "But I don't really remember the conversation that I had," he said.
Moreover, Isaac said it was usual for him to behave in a welcoming manner with anyone who met him. "If someone came to some other conclusion, why should I take the blame," he said.
Isaac also felt that his name was taken deliberately. "See the kind of stuff that is doing the rounds in the social media in the name of this. There are political vested interests, the BJP, who are interested in cooking up such stories. It is their politics that is now being manifested through this," Isaac said.
Essentially, he said the BJP was using Swapna to indulge in the character assasination of top CPM leaders. "Do you think the BJP is protecting her because they felt a sudden sympathy for her," he asked and added: "She is an accused in a smuggling case but is now the foster child of the BJP. Possibly even the things that she tells the media seems to be scripted by the BJP. The plan is to tarnish the image of senior CPM leaders," he said.
Isaac also wanted to know why Swapna had levelled this allegation now. "Why was this not told before," he said. He said this was a sign of the political conspiracy behind the charge.
When he was told that the complainant in the Solar Case, too, had levelled allegations of sexual abuse against the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy very late, Isaac brusquely said there was no need to link both the cases.
Isaac was then asked the most obvious question. Even after being battered with all manner of grave allegations, including financial fraud and sexual misconduct, why was the CPM shy of taking on Swapna legally. "This is pure politics. Rather than counter these political charges politically, there is no point going to court every time an allegation is made," he said. "If at all there is such a need, the party will decide. I cannot take that decision individually," he added.
Among the three top CPM leaders she had accused of predatory behaviour, Isaac was given the mildest treatment. She said Isaac had approached her only indirectly. "He wanted to take me to Munnar. Why would he? I can go there alone," she said.
Her most withering remarks were reserved for the other two: former Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan and former Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran. Both these men she described as "filthy", "frustrated", and "pathetic".
She said she had never been to Sreeramakrishnan's official residence alone. "I know he has a certain disease. If he had taken it out on me, I would have slapped him," she said.
She was harshest on Kadakampally. "He is a hungry, hungry, hungry dirt," she said, and added: "He is not the kind of man you can let into your house." She said he used to call her on phone in the most uncivilised manner and even used to make "dirty sexual sounds".
Both Kadakampally and Sreeramakrishnan are yet to respond.
