Thiruvananthapuram: In what sounds like an election speech amid the ongoing local body polls in Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday unleashed a scathing attack on the central agencies probing the diplomatic gold smuggling scam and related cases and the opposition parties, who, the CM said, has been running a false propaganda to topple his government.
Pinarayi addressed a press meet at 5 pm hours after Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala took a jibe at him saying he wanted to know about the whereabouts of Vijayan, as he was not seen in public even during the campaigning for the civic polls.
Vijayan compared the ongoing investigations by the central agencies to the witch-hunt of the communists during imperialism.
He also attacked the BJP for what they did in Tripura and Karnataka and finally said he will bring everything to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Vijayan released a list of names, all Congress leaders who had been jailed.
"Just look at what happened to former Union Minister P Chidambaram and present Karnataka Congress president D K Sivakumar. They were in jail and did the Congress treat them as outcasts. Late Congress veteran Ahmed Patel was another person who was haunted by the Enforcement Directorate and now his son and son-in-law are also on their radar. The Punjab Chief Minister's son is another one. The others in the Congress who have come under the national agencies' scanner include Priyanka Gandhi, Robert Vadra, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot and others," Vijayan said.
Slamming the BJP's claims about fighting corruption, Vijayan said, If anyone joins the BJP, they become clean and all their misdeeds are forgotten. Any number of names can be given.”
He said ever since the gold smuggling case surfaced, it remains to be seen if the central agencies are conducting the probe in the right manner.
"Agencies cannot act on their own and they should not act for political masters. There is a concerted ploy to create issues in a few projects of the state government, which are going to be beneficial for the people. This is happening even when the state government is following all the mandatory checks and balances through audits. We are now planning to bring all what's happened here to the attention of the prime minister," added Vijayan. He said he expects the prime minister to act and hence he is approaching him with a letter.
"I wish to point out that Communists are made of sterner stuff and will not be cowed down by any sort of intimidation," added Vijayan.
He responded to the Congress and the BJP leaders' allegations that he was missing during the civic polls campaigning, by stating that he did not want to go out in the open for campaigning because he did not want to have crowds gathering with the Covid pandemic unabated.
Asked about the way his assistant private secretary C M Raveendran ducking the Enforcement Directorate even after he was served three notices, Vijayan said that the age old saying is not a single innocent person should be made an accused, but what is now happening is how an innocent person can be made an accused.
"You all know there are some people here whose job is to write complaints. There were reports that agencies had visited several places, even though no one knows what has been found out by them. I don't think Raveendran is scared of such things," added Vijayann. He asked if there was any issue if he seeks medical attention on account of turning Covid positive.
Earlier in the day speaking to the media at Kasaragod, Chennithala said one fails to understand what's happened to Vijayan.
"He is not to be found and what we heard is he has reached his home town in Kannur a few days back, where the polls will be held on Monday. When he should be leading from the front at the poll battleground, he appears to be in hiding, " said Chennithala.
The final and third phase of the polls is on Monday when four northern districts of the states will be voting.
Vijayan last addressed a Covid press meet in the state capital last week and since then he had not been seen in public.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front convenor, M M Hassan, has also attacked the 'missing' chief minister and said, "it appears Vijayan is now more scared of the people of Kerala and not of getting Covid".
(With inputs from IANS)
