Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State vice president A.N. Radhakrishnan of crossing a line by threatening to endanger him and his family.
Responding to questions from reporters on Tuesday, he said Mr. Radhakrishnan had strayed outside the bounds of acceptable civic behaviour. Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Radhakrishnan had threatened to “attack me at my home and jail my children” on account of an ongoing police investigation.
Without mentioning the probe into the Kodakara hawala heist case, which revolved primarily around the BJP district leadership in Thrissur, Mr. Vijayan said: “I have never intervened in police probes or expressed an overt interest in their progression or outcome.” The BJP could not say the same given its history of using Central agencies as a political tool to denigrate the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and its leadership, he said.
‘Disturbing message’
The Chief Minister said he was not new to threats and did not take them personally. He had faced many in his lifetime. But, as a democratic polity, Kerala could not ignore that Mr. Radhakrishnan had threatened to harm its constitutionally elected Chief Minister, he said. Mr. Radhakrishnan’s words held an ominous and disturbing message for democratic Kerala, Mr. Vijayan said. They betrayed the BJP’s political mindset.
The controversy had its provenance in a sit-in protest convened to express solidarity with BJP State president K. Surendran in Thrissur. Mr. Radhakrishnan, who inaugurated the demonstration,
said democratic Kerala would revolt against Mr. Vijayan’s “authoritarian inclinations and penchant to impose criminal charges against his political opponents.” Neither the BJP nor Mr. Radhakrishnan responded to Mr. Vijayan’s charges.
