Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan has accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who holds charge of the Home department, of abetting the police to foist false cases against the Youth Congress activists who had raised slogans in protest against him inside an Indigo airplane after it landed in the capital from Kannur on Monday.
Both CPI(M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and LDF Convener E. P. Jayarajan, who made public statements initially that the Youth Congress activists had raised slogans after the Chief Minister exited the aircraft, are now at pains to portray that an attempt was made on the life of Mr. Pinarayi. The about-turn is following the intervention of the CM’s Office, Mr. Satheesan said while addressing the media here on Friday.
Mr. Satheesan said the “CPI(M)-controlled police” was now engaged in applying a different standard of justice for political opponents in the State. He said the CPI(M) and its youth wing, the DYFI, in their desperate attempt to save the CM’s face, have been unleashing violence across the State. (Mr. Vijayan is facing serious charges of ministerial misconduct and private profiteering raised by Swapna Suresh, a suspect in the UAE diplomatic channel gold smuggling case.)
Three Congress offices were bombed, another three offices were torched and some 27 offices were trashed. Yet the police have not filed any case against the perpetrators, said Mr. Satheesan. Several Youth Congress workers have suffered grievous injuries in the violence unleashed by the CPI(M). Not only have the police joined hands with the CPI(M)-DYFI, all the accused in these cases have been charged with offenses which are bailable, he added.
The CPI(M)’s double standards and selective justice is very much in evidence in the Indigo airlines incident, wherein no cases have been charged against Mr. Jayarajan who had manhandled the Youth Congress protesters, he said.
(Mr. Balakrishnan, in an article in the CPI(M) mouthpiece Deshabhimani, had opined that the Youth Congress protest was indeed an attempt on the life of the CM. He also accused the BJP and the Congress of acting like conjoined twins to target Mr. Vijayan and denigrate the LDF.)
“If there has been a violation of any DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) rules, let action be taken against the protesters. We will face it legally. However, the CPI(M)’s narrative that it was a murder attempt against the CM is the product of a conspiracy,” said Mr. Satheesan.
On the Opposition’s decision to boycott the ongoing Loka Kerala Sabha, Mr. Satheesan said it was a joint decision of the UDF to stay away from the event.
He said that when large-scale violence was being unleashed against Congress party offices and its activists across the State and when many grievously injured party workers were hospitalised, it was difficult to find the magnanimity to join the CPI(M) and Mr. Vijayan in participating in the Loka Kerala Sabha proceedings.
He said “the open and very verbal life threats” issued by the CPI(M) and its supporters would not dissuade the UDF from carrying on with its protests against the CM. The UDF will intensify its agitation against Mr. Pinarayi and all the UDF constituents will join the protests.
Meanwhile, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran visited Youth Congress activists Furseen Majeed and R.K Naveen kumar, who have been imprisoned in the district prison for protesting against the CM in the aircraft. District Congress Committee president Palode Ravi was also present.
