A brutal campaign season marked by tit-for-tat smears and insinuations seemed to lie ahead as Kerala raced towards the Lok Sabha elections.
For one, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan on Friday dared the Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan to answer Left independent legislator P.V. Anwar’s charge that the Congress leader had accepted significant bribes from business lobbies in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to scuttle the government’s flagship semi-high speed railway (K-Rail) project.
The CPI(M)‘s riposte to Congress came as a political counter to Mr. Satheesan’s public call for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s resignation in the wake of the Central government-controlled Serious Fraud Investigation Office’s (SFIO) announcing an enquiry against the now dormant IT consultancy headed by the latter’s daughter T. Veena. BJP State president K. Surendran also echoed a similar sentiment.
Mr. Satheesan had laughed off Mr. Anwar’s accusation in the Assembly, terming it childishly petulant and a no-brainer.
However, Mr. Govindan found Mr. Satheesan’s dismissal ethically wanting and hollow.
After chairing a meeting of the party’s State secretariat, he told reporters that parliamentary privilege protected Mr. Anwar from libel.
“If Mr. Satheesan’s conscience is clear, he should challenge Mr. Anwar to air the corruption charge in the public realm,” Mr. Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan hinted that Mr. Anwar’s statement was merely a shot across the bows and more incriminating evidence would stumble out soon.
The DYFI has already made Mr Anwar’s accusation a campaign issue by holding a torch-light march to the government secretariat demanding an anti-corruption probe against Mr. Satheesan.
Mr. Govindan said the Congress in Kerala, by allegedly acting as BJP’s underling in the Assembly, had compromised the INDIA Bloc’s fight against the Centre’s alleged trespasses on the fiscal and jurisdictional independence of States and its “subversion” of Constitutional agencies to stifle dissent.
The CPI(M) believed that the Congress’s gambit in Kerala was to help the BJP deflect the mounting public anger against the Centre’s “crippling financial embargo” on Kerala by culturing lies against Mr. Vijayan and his family in the Petri dish of electoral politics.
