Kerala: 78-yr-old Vijayan govt critic back in spotlight after PM Modi’s event

Mariyakutty, a 78-year-old woman from Adimali in Idukki district, has again come under spotlight after attending a political event organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala, people familiar with the matter said. With her hard hitting criticism for the LDF-led state government, the elderly woman is being seen as the new political weapon for the BJP and the Congress to corner the state government, the people added.

On Wednesday, Mariyakutty shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a women’s convention organised by the BJP in Thrissur to celebrate the party’s move to get the women’s reservation bill passed in both Houses of Parliament.

On the stage, the elderly woman was seen greeting the prime minister and having a brief conversation with him. One of the BJP leaders welcomed her on the dais by calling her as the woman who is leading a solo struggle against the state’s LDF government.

“There is no politics in my attending the event because I am not attached to any party. I am not under the payroll of any party. If I see any wrongdoing, I will say it openly, that’s my character. I want to tell the prime minister about the loot happening in the state. There was a ‘vinoda yathra’ (pleasure trip) undertaken by the chief minister and the ministers. Is there any benefit for us from this?” Mariyakutty told a local TV channel before the PM’s event, referring to the ‘Nava Kerala Sadas’, the outreach programme of the CM and the cabinet.

Culture minister Saji Cherian on Thursday said, “There are a lot of people today who are jealous of the chief minister and his work. There are many who want him to die. There are many like ‘Mariyakutty’ today who are being used for such purposes. But kerala’s chief minister despite being 78 is healthier than many of us.”

The 78-year-old, who has made headlines for her rustic language including calling the CM “half-mad” at one point, came into the spotlight for the first time on November 7 last year, when she went around the streets of Adimali with a “begging bowl” as part of a protest against the state government’s delay in releasing the old-age pensions for several months. Her protest coincidentally fell on the same day as the concluding day of the “Keraleeyam”, a cultural programme of the LDF government slammed by opposition parties for blatant waste of money at a time when the state was going through a financial crunch.

When her protest hit a nerve within the CPI(M), a Malayalam newspaper and the party’s mouthpiece Deshabhimani lashed back at Mariyakutty claiming that she owned acres of land and that her daughter was well-settled in a foreign country. However, within days, the newspaper had to issue a public apology after realising that its claims were false.

In December, Mariyakutty launched a fresh offence against the Vijayan government by filing a plea in the high court complaining about the arrears in the welfare pensions. The HC judge took note of her petition, called her a “VIP” and questioned the government about its commitment towards elderly citizens. While the state said that it was going through a major financial crisis, the court underlined that a senior citizen like her who gets ₹1600 a month as part of pension should not have to approach the courts.

In many ways, Mariyakutty, who does not hide her disdain for the CPI(M), has emerged as a public counter to the Left government’s claims of good governance and delivery of social welfare promises.