Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan shook off his reluctance to take on the Centre in the post-floods scenario and very nearly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of betraying the state.
“There are many states in the country where natural disasters had wreaked havoc. Kerala is not the only place. But why is Kerala alone being prevented from seeking help from outside sources,” Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday, hours after he returned from his five-day visit to the Gulf countries.
The chief minister was apparently angry at the refusal of the Centre to sanction the foreign travel of ministers. “I had left for the Gulf in the hope that permission would be granted,” the chief minister said. “The chief secretary kept calling the concerned officials at the Centre to get an update on the foreign visits of ministers. After a while, they stopped taking his calls. Finally, he was told that sanction will not be accorded. When he asked the officials at the Centre whether it would help if the chief minister himself intervened, he was advised that there would still be no point,” he added.
Pinarayi, who had been careful not to tick the Centre the wrong way after the floods ravaged the state, indirectly stated that PM Modi had betrayed the state. “When I met the PM to discuss the foreign visits, he was highly encouraging. He spoke of how Gujaratis all over the world had came forward to help the state. It was the PM who suggested that we should approach charitable foundations in foreign countries. I could not suppose any disagreement,” the chief minister said.
The chief minister, taking cue from the PM, did meet top representatives of the largest charitable institutions in the UAE during his latest visit: Emirates Red Crescent led by the UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan's brother Hamdan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan; and The Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan Charitable & Humanitarian Foundation.
According to procedure, it is the prime minister who has to approve a chief minister's foreign travel. The requests for travel of ministers are dealt with by the Foreign Ministry. “I was promptly given sanction by the prime minister's office. So we were under the impression that ministers would also be allowed. Even many days later, it now looks we were hoping against hope,” he said. “We would like to know on what basis was the permission declined,” the chief minister said.
Going to beg in foreign countries?
Pinarayi said certain BJP leaders were going around saying that we were going to beg in foreign countries. “How does this qualify as begging? We are meeting our own brethren in other parts of the world. They are willing to help in our reconstruction efforts. Moreover, like all of us here, these Malayalis now in foreign countries were also shaped by this land,” the chief minister said.
He also defended the timing of the his visit. “Thursday and Friday being holidays in Arab countries, they were the days when we could meet the most number of people,” the chief minister said. He said the Centre might have blocked the UAE and other countries from helping the state but said his visit would anyway mobilise more than the Rs 700 crore the UAE had earlier promised. “I have not specified a figure. Why should we? Let our brethren mobilise as much as they can,” he said.
