Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the Congress will find no crutch for their political weakness in the Left Democratic Front (LDF).
The Congress party’s much-feted political conclave, ‘Navsankalp Chintan Shivir,‘ held in Kozhikode was silent on the Centre’s trespasses on federalism. It was reticent about criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) bid to undermine secularism, scuttle Kerala’s development and undermine non-BJP-ruled States fiscally.
Instead, the conference brooded about employing Machiavellian tactics to entice LDF partners into hitching their wagons to a faltering Congress and United Democratic Front (UDF).
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress risked having their rank and file poached by the BJP. In Goa Assembly, the Congress Leader of the Opposition defected to the BJP. The Congress should find some solace in the truth that their leaders in Kerala were increasingly aligning themselves with the Left and not the BJP.
The Congress said the LDF in Kerala was not "left enough." "It's a welcome change though the Congress has not forsaken its neo-liberal economic policy that advantaged corporates at the expense of the commoner. The BJP pursued Congress's pro-corporate and anti-labour economic outlook with a vengeance," he said.
Mr. Vijayan said at least two presidents of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) had stayed away from the conference. "Their boycott of the conclave speaks for itself. I am not venturing into the internal dynamics of the party.," he said.
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress conclaves had batted for land reforms and being more people-centric. “With hindsight, the tall announcements are mere hollow rhetoric that did not manifest politically,” the Chief Minister said.
Instead, the Congress partnered with the BJP to target successive LDF governments using Central agencies. “The Congress resisted Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) trespasses on BJP’s political opponents at the national level. In Kerala, it abetted ED’s overreach,.” he said.
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress was fast losing political ground. It had little to offer Kerala's electorate besides slander aired by discredited elements. In contrast, recriminatory campaign of the Congress and the BJP based on cherry-picked information leaked by Central agencies had strengthened the LDF and fortified its mass base.
Mr. Vijayan said former Minister K.T. Jaleel, MLA, should have refrained from writing a letter seeking action against the Gulf edition of a Malayalam newspaper. "I am not seized of all the facts. I will crosscheck with Mr. Jaleel soon," he said.
The Chief Minister said the government would prosecute persons involved in the alcohol-impaired accident that caused the death of journalist K.M. Basheer in 2019. However, the case could not preclude the government from appointing the accused, Sriram Venkitaraman, as District Collector, Alappuzha.
When asked about the alleged police bid to ensnare television commentator Vinu V. John, in frivolous cases, Mr. Vijayan said: "I am not aware. If there is a complaint in writing, I will examine."
