Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has sought to counter the Congress’s allegation that Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) workers had unleashed wanton violence against Opposition activists who staged a “peaceful” black flag demonstration at the motorcade ferrying the Cabinet from a Navakerala Sadas venue in Kannur on November 20 (Monday).
Mr. Vijayan’s narrative about the incident contrasted sharply with the Congress’s.
Speaking to journalists in Kannur on November 21, Mr. Vijayan said that the DYFI workers had prevented the Congress worker who tried to throw himself in front of the moving bus transporting the Cabinet.
“I was sitting in the front seat. I saw the DYFI activists preventing the person from committing a suicidal act under the pretext of staging a democratic protest. In such life-threatening situations, rescuers might tend to use force to save the person from death. I hope the DYFI would continue to deter such daredevilry that imperils human life”, Mr. Vijayan said.
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress aimed to create a fatality to change the positive narrative surrounding the Kerala government’s public outreach programme.
He alleged that the Congress held forth the threat of street violence to deter the public from participating in Navakerala Sadas. However, the people rejected it outrightly.
Mr. Vijayan said opinion leaders cutting across political lines had backed the programme. For one, Congress leader A.V. Gopinath wanted to participate in the Palakkad leg of Navakerala Sadas if invited. “The government has invited him, and I look forward to meeting Mr. Gopinath in person in Palakkad”, he said.
Mr. Vijayan pointed out that Thalassery Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany had chided the Congress for boycotting the Navakerala Sadas. “People from different walks of life have rejected the Congress’s attempt to veto the event. Its boycott is thinning out every passing day as people attend the venues in droves”, he said.
‘Congress insulted electorate’
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress had insulted the electorate by terming the government-public interface an “obscene spectacle”. He said people were flocking to the Navakerala Sadas to directly flag their livelihood and local developmental issues with the Cabinet.
“To brazenly suggest that the public are flocking to Navakerala Sadas venues to watch some salacious act is abhorrent to Keralites”, Mr. Vijayan said.
He said the Congress had resorted to underhand tactics to sabotage the government’s public outreach from the very start.
It threatened a violent boycott and described the programme to redress the people’s grievances as thinly veiled political propaganda bankrolled by the public exchequer. Congress leaders continue to use incendiary language to create provocation, he said.
“The imputations and threats have had no effect. People have embraced the Navakerala Sadas. It has become a people’s movement and not merely a government programme”, Mr. Vijayan said.
