Opposition leader V.D. Satheesan. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said Kerala Governor Arif Muhammed Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sought to divert public attention from pressing social issues by resorting to high-profile shadowboxing to navigate controversies dogging the Central and State Governments.
Speaking to reporters in Chelakkara in Thrissur on Saturday (October 12, 2024), Mr. Satheesan said both leaders’ tit-for-tat attacks, often bordering on the personal, were mere sabre-rattling to pull the wool over the public’s eye.
He noted that the State and the Central Governments were responsible for a host of issues affecting the public. Both wanted some political theatre to divert public attention from their respective shortcomings.
Mr. Satheesan said a ruling front legislator, now estranged from the Government, had discomfited Mr. Vijayan by accusing the police, including a top law enforcer, of corruption and criminality. The MLA also sensationally accused the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) shielded the ranking officer.
He pointed out that the Communist Party of India (CPI), a ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) ally, had accused the law enforcer of secretly parleying with top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leadership.
“Both Mr. Vijayan and Mr. Khan had sought to divert public attention from the issues by engaging in a mock fight”, he added.
Mr. Satheesan said Mr. Khan’s promulgation of an Ordinance, at the Government’s instance, when the Assembly was in session, was the latest development that exposed the fallacy of the Government-Governor rift.
. “The CM-Governor disputes oscillated between conflict and compromise as the political situation necessitated”, Mr. Satheesan said. He said the Opposition gave no weightage to the transient CM-Governor tiff. “Such disputes have never lasted more than a week”, he said.
Mr. Satheesan alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] were in cahoots in Kerala to undermine the Congress politically.
CPI(M) push back
CPI(M) Central committee member A.K. Balan said the Government did not take Mr. Khan’s accusations of Constitutional violations raised against the Chief Minister seriously. He dared Mr. Khan to act decisively on the latter’s “outbursts” against the Government by invoking Article 356 of the Constitution to impose President’s Rule on Kerala.
“A relatively junior lawyer will defeat such an anti-democratic move in the higher judiciary”, he said. General Education Minister V. Sivankutty accused Mr. Khan of being the BJP’s political agent in Kerala.
Published – October 12, 2024 02:40 pm IST