The Congress has attempted to outpace Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s propaganda advantage by seeking to spotlight his “abrasive and authoritarian” style of functioning and “abandonment” of expatriates seeking to return home from pandemic ravaged Gulf nations by insisting that they produce COVID-19 negative certification at the port of departure.
United Democratic Front (UDF) convener Benny Behanan has announced sit-in demonstrations in Assembly constituencies across the State on June 25 to highlight the emotive issue of “preventing” expatriates from fleeing the pandemic in the Gulf.
Mr. Vijayan’s stinging attack on Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran appeared to have galvanised the party into action against the government. The run-up to the local body elections in mid-October has given impetus to its political moves.
Chennithala’s charge
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Monday joined Indian Union Muslim League legislators in a protest in front of the Secretariat to highlight the plight of Non-Resident Keralites “disowned” by the government. Mr. Vijayan had denied expatriates their birthright to return to their homeland.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy attacked the government for making COVID-19 free medical certification mandatory for expatriates seeking to return home from the Gulf.
He said the government had slammed the door shut on thousands of COVID-19 vulnerable manual labourers and blue colour workers languishing in cramped labour camps with no jobs, access to food, medicines.
Mr. Ramachandran, who faced harsh criticism from Mr. Vijayan for having alluded to Health Minister K.K. Shylaja as “Nipah princess and COVID queen”, has accused her of nepotism by appointing an “ill-qualified CPI(M) fellow traveller” as chairperson of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Former KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran has criticised the government’s decision to purchase Cheruvally Estate from a private entity as a multi-crore land scam.
The Congress has also raised the removal of sand from the Pampa as an attempt to enrich the CPI(M)’s coffers.
The war of words between the two fronts are likely to intensify in the coming days.