Apology or not, Sabha TV censors CM's body shaming remark against UDF MLA

Speaker AN Shamseer has officially not stated that the remarks would be expunged from Assembly records. Neither has Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan issued an apology for making those remarks in the Assembly on Wednesday. 

But the portion in his speech where the CM ridiculed a UDF MLA for his physical appearance has been edited out in the video clip of the speech published by Sabha TV, Kerala Assembly's in-house channel. Opposition leader V D Satheesan had termed the CM's remarks as an instance of "body shaming". 

The CM's remark came during the speech he made after a tense standoff in the Assembly that eventually led to the UDF's boycott of the day's proceedings. He was responding to the Opposition Leader's charge that it was the CM's incitement that pushed the House into unprecedented chaos. 

It is not clear whether the CM made any provocative comments, but it looked like it was the CM's exchange of words with Congress MLA A P Anilkumar that apparently provoked the ruling side to rush belligerently at the agitating UDF members. 

The CM, who was in his chair, was seen talking in a confrontational manner with Congress MLA A P Anilkumar who was part of the UDF legislators trying to push their way to the Speaker's podium. Amid the din and from the press gallery, what was spoken was inaudible. 

The CM looked hostile and Anilkumar, taken aback for a moment, was also seen talking back like someone who did not want to yield an inch but still was uncertain about what had just happened. 

Perhaps sensing this as rude, ruling front members led by PWD minister Mohammad Riyas and culture minister Saji Cherian rushed to the side of the CM, as if determined to physically take on the UDF legislators insulting the CM. The Watch and Ward (W&W) staff intervened to prevent what could have erupted into an explosive fist fight. 

However, after the UDF boycott, the CM said that he was distressed by the sight of "three to four" UDF MLAs applying "huge pressure" on the Watch & Ward staff. "I saw one of them (the W&W staff) badly exhausted," he said, and added: "Why did they engage in such an act? Why did they attempt to assault the mute Watch & Ward staff?" He said he also saw the UDF legislators pushing a female member of the W&W staff.

It was then that he made the remark that Satheesan later termed as "body shaming". Without naming the MLA, the CM gave a physical description of the legislator using a malicious Kannur wisecrack about men with short height. "Ettumukkaal Atti  Vechathu Pole," he said. ('Mukkaal ana' is the British-era lowest value quarter coin, which is hollow at the centre. Even if eight such 'coins with holes' are heaped together, they won't rise up to much. The saying is a dig at both a person's height and intelligence.)

"It was this man of such a short height who was trying to attack in a big way. One only has to look at him to realise that this chap does not possess the physical capability to do anything of that sort. But the Watch and Ward staff were sought to be attacked using the immunity extended by the Assembly," the CM said. This stretch, except for the last line, has now been scissored out of the official video. 

"Has the Kerala CM only contempt for people with lesser height? Why is he so angry and contemptuous of them? This is body shaming. The comment he had made is politically incorrect. I am going to write to the Speaker. Either the CM should apologise or the remarks should be expunged," Satheesan later told reporters.

However, he said that he preferred the CM to publicly apologise for the remarks like V N Vasavan had earlier. The devaswom and cooperation minister had in 2022 said in the Assembly that the UDF had once looked like Amitabh Bachchan and had now shrunk to look like Indrans. He apologised.