Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Kanam Rajendran on Tuesday hit back at climate change deniers in his political front.
Mr. Rajendran’s counter came at a Meet-the-Press here when journalists pointed out that three LDF legislators had questioned the link between environmental degradation and natural disasters in the aftermath of the catastrophic floods that wreaked havoc in Kerala.
“People who heard them now have an accurate idea of their lack of knowledge in the matter,” he quipped.
(At the special Assembly session convened to discuss last month's devastating floods, LDF legislators P.V. Anwar, Thomas Chandy and S. Rajendran appeared dismissive of the theory that unregulated human activity, often spurred by entrenched commercial interests, worsened the impact of climate change-driven cataclysmic weather events.)
Mr. Rajendran said neither the CPI(M) nor the LDF shared their perception of climate or the environment. The LDF was not against the Madhav Gadgil report in toto. Instead, it wanted to strike a balance between the needs of farmers and conservation of the environment. Mr. Rajendran said he feared that discordant voices were marring the unity Kerala had witnessed during the monsoon havoc.
He said the government was right in contracting KPMG, a multi-national firm which had offered its services free as a consultancy to help rebuild Kerala.