MALAPPURAM
Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan here on Friday reminded the CPI(M) of the agitations and excesses the party and its leaders had conducted in the past. “Those trying to disparage the people’s struggle against SilverLine should remember their immediate past,” he said.
Addressing the media, Mr. Satheesan said that it was under CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan’s leadership that the current Education Minister V. Sivan Kutty had unleashed mayhem in the Assembly. “It was our current Chief Minister who permitted his men to wreak havoc in the Assembly.”
Mr. Satheesan said that it was a shame that such a Chief Minister had come to teach decorum to the United Democratic Front (UDF) MPs, who protested in Delhi against SilverLine. “CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the Kerala MPs deserved a beating. It was Mr. Kodiyeri who said that bombs would be made even inside police stations. The CPI(M) leaders are forgetting their dark past and behaving like landlords and corporates,” the Opposition Leader said.
Mr. Satheesan said that the language of the CPI(M) leaders smacked of their drastic shift from extreme left to extreme right. He described Fisheries Minister Saji Cherian as the “biggest joker” in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet. “Why are these people so intolerant towards the people’s agitation?” he asked.
He said the Railway Minister too had raised the same concern of the UDF in the Rajya Sabha. “The Railway Minister said that Kerala’s estimate of ₹64,000 crore for SilverLine was false. He also raised concerns of environmental degradation for Kerala.”
Mr. Satheesan criticised the government for changing the proposed rail from broad gauge to standard gauge. He said it was in tune with the Japanese lending agency.
The intermediaries were active in Delhi for about a week connecting the Chief Minister, the Prime Minister, the Sangh Parivar and the CPI(M). “The UDF will resist the project. The government has failed to answer the questions raised by the people”.
Mr. Satheesan said that even if the survey stone laying was stopped, the UDF would continue with its agitation until the Chief Minister declared the government’s withdrawal from the project.
“Everyone is opposing SilverLine. They include children of former CPI(M) ideologues and leaders, and leaders of the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad such as R.V.G. Menon. Various socio-religious groups and the media have asked the government to withdraw from the project.”
Mr. Satheesan accused Mr. Vijayan of following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by branding everyone who opposed him as anti-national and extremist. “All despots in the world have a same pattern. The UDF is leading the agitation along with the people. We won’t let the struggling elderly and the children be jailed,” he said.
