The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) began its two-day brainstorming session titled ‘Navsankalp Chintan Shivir’ here on Saturday with a call to oppose the ‘fascist rule’ of the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre and the ‘dictatorial rule’ of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala.
The event is a follow-up to a similar session held at the national level in Udaipur in Rajasthan to prepare the party for the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. Former KPCC presidents Mullappally Ramachandran and V.M. Sudheeran, however, were conspicuous by their absence here.
Opening the inaugural meet, K.C. Venugopal, general secretary in-charge of organisation, All-India Congress Committee (AICC), alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had been converted into an “election department” of the BJP. The government was forcing Central agencies that were supposed to act unbiased to behave in a biased way. At the same time, efforts were on to polarise the society on communal lines. “They want India to be divided into Hindus and those who are anti-Hindus,” Mr. Venugopal claimed.
He also alleged that Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala Chief Minister, was following a similar political line. All the powers were getting concentrated in Mr. Vijayan, Mr. Venugopal claimed, adding that the victory of the LDF in the 2021 Assembly polls was a result of an alliance between the BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The BJP had then created an impression that the Central agencies were about to arrest Mr. Vijayan in the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case. A kind of fear was created in the minds of certain religious communities as well. “These factors primarily contributed to the LDF victory. But we know what happened later. The ED, which questioned former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for 54 hours in five days and party president Sonia Gandhi recently, seems to be not interested in interrogating Mr. Vijayan,” Mr. Venugopal said. The Congress leader claimed that the BJP wanted the CPI(M) to come to power in Kerala so that the Congress would get decimated in the process.
AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar, KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, Opposition leader V.D. Satheesan, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, and former Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala were present.
