The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Friday issued a clarion call to its supporters to mobilise popular opinion against what it termed a bid by Central agencies to ensnare Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a false case. The next Left Democratic Front (LDF) meeting will decide the mode and manner of the Statewide agitation.
CPI(M) acting State secretary A. Vijayaraghavan said instead of pursuing the truth, the Central agencies seemed on a political mission to destabilise the State government and target those at its helm.
The averments of suspects in various cases under investigation by the Central agencies pointed to the political motive behind their actions. Illustratively, a court, while considering a bail plea by M. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, had ominously observed that the Central agencies relied on legally dubious methods to secure “false statements” from suspects.
Mr. Vijayan had invited the agencies in good faith to probe an international crime with national security ramifications. However, the agencies had overstepped their brief and constitutional bounds.
Preparing ground for BJP
They had attempted to upend the government and its development programmes to prepare the ground for the pro-corporate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to make inroads into Kerala. The BJP knew it could not purchase legislators to cut the ground from under the feet of the LDF. Hence, it had employed Central agencies to undermine the State government.
Mr. Vijayaraghavan said the BJP should not forget that Kerala was home to a sizeable population of minority communities. The State’s secular roots ran strong and deep. It had collectively protested against the patently anti-minority Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and other wantonly discriminatory laws.
Against State’s interests
The development and social-welfare achievements of the LDF government had buoyed up its chances for a second innings in power. The BJP and the United Democratic Front (UDF), staring at defeat, had harnessed the heft of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General to scuttle the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIFFB), the vehicle for Kerala’s development. “They have plotted against the interests of the State,” he said.
