Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was spared a major embarrassment in the Assembly on Tuesday when Speaker M B Rajesh disallowed a Submission moved by Opposition Leader V D Satheesan on the gold smuggling scandal. The Speaker turned down the Submission though it was listed as the first one of the day.
Satheesan's Submission was clearly intended to put the Chief Minister on the back foot. He wanted to know whether the government would recommend a CBI enquiry into the smuggling of gold using the diplomatic channel of the UAE Consulate.
Law minister P Rajeev raised a procedural issue against the Submission. He said anything related to the UAE Consulate fell in the Union List and therefore was beyond the remit of the State Government. Anything outside the state's authority could not be brought in as Submission, Rajeeve argued
Satheesan tried to reason that his poser had nothing to do with the functioning of the Consulate but only wanted to know whether the government would call for a CBI probe into the gold smuggling scandal. "The Chief Minister himself had told this House that he wanted to know who sent the gold and who received it," Satheesan said.
The Opposition Leader also reminded the Assembly of the recent remarks made by Union Foreign Minister S Jaisankar during his visit to Kerala. The minister had expressed wonder at what happened in the UAE Consulate. Satheesan also gave his call for a CBI enquiry an urgency citing the Union Minister's comments.
Further, Satheesan argued outside the House that the Enforcement Directorate was too inadequate to probe a crime with international ramifications. "The ED also cannot probe the alleged protocol violation involved in the Chief Minister's meeting with the UAE Consul General," Satheesan said.
Nonetheless, the Speaker backed the law minister's procedural lapse argument and rejected the Submission. The Chief Minister, therefore, did not have to make a public stand on the issue.
