Satheesan hints at 'disharmony' in Pinarayi family and laughs at CPM course correction

Chief Minister V D Satheesan used his post-Cabinet briefing on Wednesday to taunt Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan and former minister Mohammad Riyas and also to laugh at the 'corrective measures' taken at the CPM Extended State Committee.

The Chief Minister responded to questions about the Enforcement Directorate's 'hawala' charges against Riyas like he was least interested in the issue. "Since the legal scrutiny (of the 25-page chargesheet the ED had handed over to the State Police Chief) is on, I am not going into the details of the case," he said in a tone that suggested that he did not want to utter a word more.

But the CM could not resist the temptation. "Both of them (Pinarayi and Riyas) had said two different things," he said. "One asked 'which diary, what diary' and the other said the scribblings were about a future business proposition. They have actually contradicted themselves," the CM said. His manner suggested that his government was least bothered about this seeming disagreement. "We are not interested in the political side of the issue. We are examining the legal angle," he said.

When asked about the ED's mention of a 'red diary' in his daughter Veena's possession, Pinarayi had termed it 'plain absurd'. Riyas did not outrightly discredit the existence of a red diary like Pinarayi did but he said that his wife Veena had some scribblings and jottings of a future business proposal.

Nonetheless, the CM's suggestion of disharmony within the Pinarayi family, though made in an uninterested way, seemed to have hit the bullseye. Later in the day, Riyas came before the media and claimed that both he and Pinarayi had said the same thing.

"How can our statements be different," he said. "When it was said that a diary was confiscated and that certain things were written in the diary, Pinarayi said it was wrong. Did I say anything different? I said there were only pieces of paper, all of it separate and dealing with different subjects. Yet, there are attempts to show that we are contradicting each other," Riyas said.

However, at the post-Cabinet briefing, the CM was at his sarcastic best when a poser on remarks made by the CPM on the ED charges threw open for him a narrow path to the CPM's Extended State Committee. Satheesan was told that the CPM Politburo and Central Committee had said that the UDF government should not act as the tool of the Sangh Parivar by registering a case based on the ED's allegations.

He brushed this aside and used the opening to gatecrash the Extended Committee. "The PB and the party had scooted to safety after heaping all the blame for the failure on poor Govindan and the people," he said and added: "That is in fact nice. I welcome it. It is indeed a good thing that they (CPM) have still not understood why they have lost. What we are witnessing is a farcical situation where those really responsible for the defeat have been let off the hook."

There were attempts by journalists to bait him with the Congress's ideological position on ED's motives. "The Congress has questioned the ED's raids linked to (former Uttarakhand Chief Minister) Harish Rawat. Is it right to take divergent stands in Kerala and other parts of the country," he was asked. The CM behaved like he had not heard the question.