CPM state secretary M V Govindan said on Tuesday that Chief Minister V D Satheesan's 'free travel' to disaster-affected areas in Malappuram on a chartered flight and local self-government minister K M Shaji's official journey on his friend's 'rent-free' Range Rover were "unconstitutional" and "violations of the oath of office".

Govindan said that the Chief Minister had turned out to be a habitual offender. "On the day before the election results were out, Satheesan flew in a chartered plane to Mangaluru for private purposes. We are not trying to say that it is a grave crime to travel in a plane. Question is, who paid for the ride? Who sponsored it? Satheesan has taken the ludicrous position that he would not reveal the name of the sponsor. What kind of transparent politics is this? He admits that his travel was sponsored but is unwilling to reveal who the sponsor is. Kerala wants to know picked the tab for his travel," the CPM state secretary said.

He wondered why the CM said that public funds were not used for the trip to Malappuram on September 21. "The CM said it was not done with public money. What was the need to say this," Govindan said and used the occasion to recall Satheesan's earlier 'aberrations'. "This (the flight to Malappuram) was unlike the helicopter ride to visit his father-in-law and his earlier chartered flight to Mangaluru, which were strictly personal visits. But the Malappuram visit was an official one. The Chief Minister of Kerala was visiting areas affected by a natural disaster. Who will ever be against such a visit? A Chief Minister is well within his rights to use government funds for this trip," Govindan said.

The CPM state secretary's poser is this: "If he claims he has not used public funds, who then met his travel expenses?" He said it was a violation of the oath of office if a private individual or company had sponsored a Chief Minister's travel. "We are in a situation where the Chief Minister is repeatedly violating the oath of office," Govindan said.

He said that local self-government minister K M Shaji's use of government symbols on a private vehicle (Kerala government board, number and official flag) was a violation of not just protocol but also of the Motor Vehicles Act.

During the LDF period, two ministers - then sports and youth affairs minister V Abdurahiman and union minister Suresh Gopi - were granted permission to use their personal vehicle for official travel, Govindan said. "However, permission was denied when K B Ganesh Kumar sought to use a private car that he did not own as his official vehicle. In short, no minister had ever been allowed to use somebody else's car as her official vehicle," the CPM state secretary said.

He termed as "strange" the remark of KPCC president and power minister Sunny Joseph. "He said that Shaji had actually saved money for the government, because there was no rent, no diesel expenses and no driver allowances," Govindan said. The CPM leader termed this a shocking ignorance of certain safety barriers inherent in the law.

"It is to discourage them from resorting to wrong tendencies that ministers and other officers associated with the government are provided bungalows and vehicles," Govindan said. He said that both Shaji and the friend who gave him the car behaved as if such practices were the established norms in the state. "There is no doubt that such tendencies breed corruption," Govindan said, and added: "Now, what we hear is that the owner of the vehicle (the Range Rover used by minister Shaji) has been given a position in a committee constituted under the education department. Clearly, this is a quid pro quo arrangement."

Govindan said that besides the CM and minister Shaji, a bevy of ministers were now visiting various parts of the world. "The others, too, say that they have not used government money. This means that they too have been sponsored," Govindan said. "A minister should use either his own money or government funds. Travel using any other means is illegal," he said.

Further, Govindan said that corruption would spread rampantly if senior government officials, too, attempted to emulate these ministers.