Thiruvananthapuram: Finally, after seven months and 10 days, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan met the media at twilight on Tuesday.
He had good news to share. "The possibility of a second Nipah wave looks very low." He had something to gloat about, too. "We have implemented the 380th promise in the LDF manifesto," the Chief Minister said referring to the Kerala Government Land Assignment (Amendment) Bill, 2023, that will regularise constructions made in 'patta' lands violating deed conditions.
After playing the patriarch guiding Kerala through Nipah, like during the pandemic, and making a political pitch to settler farmers in Idukki in particular, he sat like a shooting target for reporters to fire questions.
Usually, he allows just 15 minutes. This time, he let the inquisition last 30 minutes.
There were many scams the Chief Minister had to account for, most notably the 'pay for no work' received by his daughter Veena Vijayan, the AI-camera contract scandal and the burning issue of the moment, the loot in CPM-controlled cooperative banks.
But, as was anticipated, the Chief Minister did the equivalent of placing a bulletproof sheet right in front of a shooting target. None of the shots, therefore, reached the intended circles. Each was deflected by the bullet-proof sheet in front.
The sheet that blocked all questions fired at the Chief Minister was the 'one size fits all', and by now cliched, argument manufactured in the Kerala CPM's political lab: The ruling BJP is out to destroy the Opposition. And where the Centre's conspiracy could not be invoked, like in the charges related to the Solar scam, he resolutely held on to his and his party's stated positions.
Vijayan faced the first question related to his daughter with a calm amused smile, as if it was a child asking him the question. The poser was serious.
His was one of the names mentioned for receiving funds from Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL). Is it right for political parties and their leaders to accept funds from controversial business houses?
The answer was blunt. "It is not possible that my name is there."
So, who do you think this PV is?
"There are many who could qualify to be PV. This land has so many PVs."
The full form is given in the report itself.
"What can I say if officers appointed by the BJP government assumed so?"
Have you by any chance received funds from CMRL when you were party secretary?
"I have never said that I had received such funds. Nor have they (CMRL) said that I had sought money from them."
You said the income your daughter received was not a monthly bribe ('maasappadi'). But the company officials had said that no services were provided. Even when they later wanted to retract this statement, they could not summon up the proof to do so. So it is clear that the money was paid for non-existent services. But you told the Assembly that the money was given for services rendered.
"You say these things believing the words of the agency (IT Interim Settlement Board). Why did this agency mention my position? Had it been a professional agency, it should have limited its remarks to the case at hand. But here it said a person was the relative of a particular person. So, their agenda is clear. It is not to trap the person but through this person to reach me."
And then the Chief Minister employed his usual tactic of passing off his opinion as a statement of fact. "I know you people can easily understand the politics behind this. But you are trying to hide this aspect."
Chief Minister, the agency was only trying to say that this person (Veena) was using her proximity to the office of the Chief Minister to secure benefits.
"I know you people will only parrot what they say. Don't think I am sitting here expecting something else from you."
And then, like the CPM Secretariat earlier, the Chief Minister made what can seem on the face of it a sound argument. Except that it ignores the finding that his daughter's company had not provided any services.
"How can the activities of a company that is run professionally be interpreted in a different sense? All the figures you are speaking of were taken from the company's records. And this is a company that has honoured all its legal commitments like paying taxes."
If the agency had refused to take the version of your daughter's company, can't legal action be taken?
The Chief Minister jutted in before the question could be completed. "Let them (his daughter's company) decide all that. If there is a legal recourse, let them think of it. But when an agency reaches such a conclusion, is it not fair to ask the person concerned? Why didn't they ask?"
Before more questions could be hurled, the Chief Minister unleashed his trademark anti-media tirade. "You are frustrated that your narrative is not getting the necessary acceptance. You are repeating the same arguments. You are purposefully turning a blind eye to the conspiracy of the centre."
Soon enough his distinctive self-defense mechanism came into play. Like innumerable times in the past, Pinarayi painted himself as the indestructible tragic hero of a media witch-hunt. "You have been trying to destroy Pinarayi Vijayan for quite a long time. Keep trying. Try also to involve his family members. But you very well know that I am not the kind who could be destroyed by such things."
The posers kept coming. Isn't there a moral issue in a family member of yours securing benefits from a controversial company?
"Try spreading this narrative, too. Let's see how much of this will stick." He said that people had even gone to the outrageous extent of saying his daughter's company had links with companies with terrorist links. "People have been targeting me for quite long. It's natural."
When questions turned to the cooperative scam, the Chief Minister again played the victim and made it sound as if it did not involve the loot of hard-earned money. "The Centre's attempts to destroy the cooperative sector began right from the time of demonetisation. At the moment the target is the CPM but the real target is Kerala's cooperative sector itself."
All through the inquisition, Pinarayi tried his best not to lose his cool.
