The allegations that Chief Minister V D Satheesan patronised the drug mafia and that he had declared Emergency-like press censorship are interlinked. According to the Opposition, the criticism of one action leading to the other.

On Thursday, during his post-cabinet briefing, the Chief Minister addressed both the charges.

The first was that two men nabbed in Kasaragod with MDMA - Muhammad Hussain and P A Abdul Salam - were Youth Congress leaders with umbilical links to the Chief Minister's Office. It was said that the main accused, Muhammad Hussain, was the Chief Minister's 'social media coordinator'.

Right at the outset, the Chief Minister admitted that he knew both the arrested persons. He said that he had met Hussain at his house, though he did not refer to Salam any more than saying that he knew him.

"Husain was a Youth Congress worker. I got in touch with him for the first time after he suffered a brutal attack in front of MGM School at Kuruppampady in Perumbavoor as part of the 'Nava Kerala Sadas' state brutality. I called him when he was in the hospital. He was badly injured. I consoled him, like I did with many others who were beaten up. And I also told him that I would visit him at his house whenever time permits. I normally say this, and I would also go wherever possible," the CM told reporters at the post-Cabinet briefing.

He met Hussain after some time, while he was convalescing at his house. Satheesan, while he was the Opposition Leader, had a programme nearby, and he was told by the local MLA and other Congress office-bearers that Hussain lived close by. They insisted that Satheesan keep his promise.

"Later, he had met me two or three times at various places. On all these occasions, I had taken an interest in him as a victim of police brutality. When boys who were beaten up come to us, we will definitely hold them close. At that point, neither partymen nor even the public had any idea what this person was up to. It was after the arrest that these things came to light," the CM said.

He suggested that the arrest itself was proof that the Congress would not shield the culprits. "This man was arrested as part of Operation Toofan. Does any one of you have a complaint that strings were pulled to save this man? He was arrested and jailed. He was not protected," the CM said.

Satheesan also refuted the charge that Hussain was his social media coordinator. "I didn't have a social media team when I was an Opposition Leader, nor do I have one now. I have not posted anyone as my social media coordinator," he said.

When told that CPM state secretary M V Govindan had remarked that the CM's Office was the "den of drug mafia", the CM called Govindan his party's "good luck charm". "He regularly comes up with blunders like the CM's office is the den of drug mafia. And that is why I call him our good luck charm," he said, and added rhetorically: "Where was this party secretary when the special secretary of the former CM was in jail for 100 days in the gold smuggling scandal."

The CM said that Govindan's 'den of drug mafia' comment was in fact a sly attempt to tarnish Pinarayi Vijayan. "I am sure Govindan deliberately made the remark to provoke me into saying about what happened during the time of the former Chief Minister," Satheesan said.

The second charge was that the CM had used his secret links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apply pressure on Meta to remove social media posts critical of him. It is said that 10 or more social media cards of various media organisations like Kairali, 24 News, Reporter and News Malayalam were removed at the CM's insistence.

Sarcasm laced with humility was Satheesan's weapon to nullify the censorship charges. "When I hear such news, I think of myself as someone out of the ordinary. Imagine Meta waiting for my orders to remove everything from their domains," he said, as if there was no bigger joke.

The CM said the only time his office had contacted Meta was to request it to restore the CMO Keralam page on Instagram. "It has been two months, and they have still not done it," he said. "And now it is said that Meta had removed all the posts the moment I asked them to," he said, in a tone that suggested that nothing could be sillier. "Am I a fool to believe that I can silence social media and the public by getting 10 posts removed from Meta," he said.

The CM said that the reverse had taken place. He said three posts supportive of him were taken off from the social media pages of news channels. One, the speech made by Latin Archbishop Thomas J Netto praising the CM's role in mitigating coastal concerns during the 700th anniversary of the Kollam Archdiocese. Two, the visual of the CM and forest minister Shibu Baby John visiting the house of Gautam Krishna (Neendakara). Three, Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council's (KCBC) open declaration of support for the CM.

He said posts concerning Telangana and Himachal Pradesh chief ministers were also pulled down by Meta. The CM said that such indiscriminate and undeclared takedown of social posts had begun after Meta had apologised to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for restricting access to a midnight selfie video during the Jantar Mantar protests.

The CM wondered whether this was part of a grand policy design to silence the opposition. He wanted the media organisations to fight the erasure. "You are the aggrieved party. You should make attempts to get the removed posts restored. The government will stand by you," Satheesan said, and added: I am also willing to write a letter to Meta saying that posts criticising me should not be removed."