Arya Rajendran, 25, arguably Thiruvananthapuram’s youngest Mayor, has found herself in a spot after she got embroiled in a road rage incident with a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus driver.
Grainy traffic camera footage broadcast by television channels showed Ms. Rajendran and her CPI(M) compatriot and husband, K.M. Sachin Dev, MLA, heading off a KSRTC bus with their car in the city on April 26 evening and questioning the driver, H.L. Yadhu, for unruly road behaviour.
The footage showed the car parked on the zebra crossing in front of the bus as the traffic light above blinked green.
The police later arrested Mr. Yadhu for making obscene gestures at the Mayor and her family. The KSRTC benched him.
However, the police controversially refused to register Mr. Yadhu’s complaint that Ms. Rajendran, Mr. Dev, and two other co-passengers had interrupted his trip and violated traffic rules. Mr. Yadhu also alleged that Mr. Dev had boarded the bus and ordered the passengers out.
Memory card missing
The police said the complete picture of the incident remained elusive. The memory card of the onboard camera was mysteriously missing. The police were not ruling out a possible cover-up or destruction of evidence. Investigators were tracking down passengers to record their statements.
The incident quickly gained social and mainstream media traction and became a political hot potato for the CPI(M).
Mr. Yadhu became a magnet for television news crews. He seemed to acquire an instant celebrity status, feted by some sections of the media as an ordinary person who lost his livelihood for standing up to political imperiousness.
The Congress and the BJP portrayed the incident as emblematic of the CPI(M) leadership’s entitlement mentality.
They disrupted the Corporation Council meeting, accusing Ms. Rajendran of disregarding due process and resorting to vigilantism.
A distraught Ms. Rajendran said she was the victim of misogyny, and the experience was common to other working women.
Opposition workers lampooned Ms. Rajendran. They raised hoardings declaring the road in front of the Mayor’s office a no-parking zone. Counsellors stuck posters on passing KSRTC buses, cautioning them against not giving the right-of-way to the Mayor’s car.
The controversy’s echoes showed little signs of abating on Wednesday, and the political tit-for-tats seemed poised to continue until the police investigation reached a finality. Meanwhile, the CPI(M) and the DYFI have backed Ms. Rajendran.
