Imputations of corruption, forceful denials, and retaliatory taunts revolving around the opposition’s accusations of corruption against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter, T. Veena, seemed to characterise the political sparring between the CPI(M) and Congress on Sunday.
CPI(M) leader A. A. Rahim, MP, fired a shot over the opposition’s bows by suggesting that an “untreated histrionic personality disorder” had goaded Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan to broadcast unfounded corruption accusations against Ms. Veena. He said such “attention-seeking sensationalist behaviour “ warranted counselling.
CPI(M) Central committee member A. K. Balan also weighed in. He demanded that Mr. Kuzhalnadan “personally apologise” to Mr. Vijayan’s family for falsely propagandising that Ms. Veena had suspiciously received a sizeable retainer fee from a Kochi-based mining firm without rendering any reciprocal service.
“The firm had filed an affidavit stating that it had put Ms.Veena on a retainer as an I.T. consultant for services rendered. The Finance Department has said that Ms. Veena had paid her GST,” Mr. Balan said.
Mr. Kuzhalnadan had relied on an Income Tax disputes settlement forum’s findings to back his accusations.
Mr. Balan said neither Mr. Vijayan nor Ms. Veena was a party to the IT dispute between the Central government and the mining firm.
“The forum had no legal right or capacity to drag their names into the proceedings”, Mr. Balan said.
Mr. Kuzhalnadan refused to budge from his stance despite the strong CPI(M) pushback. He said the Finance Department had not stated the amount Ms Veena remitted as GST, wrongly citing privacy. “The matter is in the public court,” he said.
Congress also faced its set of weekend woes. Factionalism appeared to rear its head in the party in Malappuram worryingly.
Congress workers raised personally disparaging slogans against the District Congress Committee (DCC) president, V.S.Joy.
A party insider said the A-faction reportedly felt that the party leadership had passed over them for mandalam president selection.
Meanwhile, a police case accusing Congress leader V.S. Sivakumar of involvement in a cooperative bank scam also put the party on the defence.
Congress has termed the case politically motivated. However, it fears the charge would give CPI(M) a fig leaf to cover its cooperative bank corruption.
Congress also came under CPI(M) attack for allowing a media advisor to “hijack” the opposition’s political messaging by “scrimping on facts and spreading slander”.
