Thiruvananthapuram: In 2012 when the girl ‘Nribhaya’ was barbarically assaulted by a gang in a moving bus in Delhi, the then India prime minister, Manmohan Singh, had only two years of his term left. Over those two years, what ruled the headlines was that one incident, and the series of corruption allegations that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was already facing.

Two years later, the UPA was brought crashing down by the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.

Over the last few days, an eerily similar script is being played out in Kerala. The Congress-led United Democratic Front government has been facing corruption allegations for long, and now a vicious rape and murder of a Dalit law student has fuelled protests across the state.

While the rape of the girl ‘Nirbhaya’ in Delhi fuelled anger against the UPA government two years before the end of its term, Kerala’s UDF faces similar antagonism barely two weeks before its term ends.

Kerala’s voters decide the government’s fate on May 16.

Fury over the killing of 30-year-old law student, Jisha has spread like wildfire with protest marches across the state by various organisations. When home minister Ramesh Chennithala attempted to visit Jisha’s mother, Rajeswari at the hospital, Democratic Youth Federation of India protesters stopped him from doing so.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy called on Rajeswari even as Congress and Left supporters clashed outside the hospital. Unhappy with a journalist’s query to the CM about how a post graduate medical student could conduct Jisha’s autopsy, Congress workers pushed and heckled media persons.

The chief minister himself was left dumbfounded as Rajeswari cried aloud, “Give my daughter back”.

Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan, who also called on Rajeswari, said there was a failure on the part of the police, and suggested a recast of the investigation team. Communist Party of India Marxist politburo member, Pinarayi Vijayan remarked, “This government gives protection not to the Jishas, but to criminals”.

While the state government faced fury at home, the news of the Dalit girl’s rape and killing was carried by leading media houses around the world.

Newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Telegraph and Daily Mail carried the news. The Telegraph titled the news, India in shock after brutal rape and murder of female ‘untouchable’, while the Daily Mail headline said, ‘Kerala cries for justice’.

The issue also figured in the Indian parliament. CPM MP, C.P. Rajasekharan raised the issue in Parliament, and the House deputy speaker, P.J. Kurien opined that the incident had brought shame to all Keralites.