An Oppositionlawmaker in Kerala, K.K.Rema, on Sunday confirmed that her right wrist was dislocated and was in a cast, referring to allegations by CPM leaders that she was faking or exaggerating an injury suffered during Wednesday’sclash with Assembly marshals.
Rema’s injury became a topic of discussion after CPMlawmaker from Balussery, K.M. Sachin Dev, shared two pictures on Facebook to imply that she could be feigning injury. One of the pictures showed Rema raising her hand with no cast.
State CPM secretary M.V. Govindan also questioned the Opposition’s allegations that she suffered a fractured hand.
“The information that is coming out is that there is no fracture. A fracture or not, such matters should not be politicised. The claim about the fracture is to basically provoke the people. That’s not the correct approach,” Govindan told reporters on Saturday.
But Rema told The Telegraph on Sunday that she was indeed injured when women marshals dragged her out of the protest zone on March 15.
Rema is the lone member of the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI).
“My right wrist is dislocated and a doctor at the Thiruvananthapuram General Hospital put my hand in a cast. Would any government doctor lie about an injury? If so, the government should take action,” she said.
After being on painkillers for two days, Rema is still on medication.
The Opposition members had staged a protest outside the Speaker’s office after being denied permission for adjournment motions on several issues, including the recent garbage dump fire in Kochi.
Rema accused Dev of sharing a misleading Facebook post that implied she was faking the injury. “The first picture shows me with my raised right hand pointing my finger and the second one shows me at the hospital with my hand in a cast and a sling. But the problem here is that the first picture was shot during the melee before the doctor diagnosed that my wrist was injured and hence a false portrayal of the facts.”
She lodged a complaint with Speaker A.N. Shamseerand later with the cyber police over Dev’s post.
Dev said he had not named Rema in his Facebook post and had only shared her pictures.“I did not name her in my comment,” he told this newspaper. His comment referred to a popular Malayalam film series in which a purportedly injured hand changes during a comedy scene.