Shwetha Menon Sunday resigned as the president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) following dramatic scenes and heated exchanges during the actors’ body’s annual general meeting.
The 17-member executive committee headed by her also resigned on Sunday.
According to PTI, the hours-long general body meeting witnessed sharp arguments among members over the passage of the annual report and statement of accounts.
A section of members reportedly raised questions over the lack of clarity in the income and expenditure details contained in the annual report presented by General Secretary Kuku Parameswaran, triggering heated exchanges.
As the dispute escalated, Menon announced her resignation as president of the organisation.
Speaking to reporters later, she said the entire executive committee had also stepped down.
“All the executive committee members have resigned. I have resigned my membership and come out of the organisation,” she said, adding that she had resigned not only as president but also from the primary membership of AMMA and was no longer associated with the organisation.
She alleged that the association’s treasurer was unavailable and that accounts relating to a particular period could not be produced.
“The treasurer of the organisation was absconding. When an AMMA staffer was terminated and later filed a complaint, the issue was not addressed. Instead, the treasurer went missing, and therefore we could not produce the accounts for that period,” she alleged.
According to Menon, the accounts maintained by the present committee from September 1 onwards were in order, but several unresolved issues remained from the tenure of the previous committee.
“An effort is being made to return the organisation to the hands of people against whom allegations have been raised. That was an agenda,” she alleged, without elaborating.
“Without informing us, there was an agenda to remove us. I have a personality, and I will speak my mind. If we were puppets, we could not have run this organisation. But I am not ready to become a puppet,” she added.
The current AMMA leadership was elected in August last year, when women were chosen to head the organisation for the first time in AMMA's history.
Menon and Kuku Parameswaran were elected president and general secretary, respectively, while Ansiba Hasan and Lakshmi Priya were elected joint secretary and vice-president.
Ansiba Hasan had recently resigned from her post, citing internal differences with certain members of the organisation.
Reacting to the developments, Kerala Minister for Cultural Affairs and Cinema P C Vishnunadh termed it an internal matter of the organisation and ruled out any government intervention.
“AMMA is one among many organisations in Kerala. Even if some of its members are MLAs or politicians, when they function within that organisation, they are actors. Let them resolve the issues within the organisation themselves. There is no need for the government to intervene in such matters,” he told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.