Annie Raja’s comments not party’s stand: Kanam

Thiruvananthapuram: CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran has slammed the party national leader Annie Raja for commenting on the issues in Kerala. In his speech on the concluding day of the district conference of the party here on Sunday, the CPI state secretary said, “Whatever Annie Raja has said is not the stand of the party. Before commenting on the state’s issues, she should have consulted with the party state unit.”
Annie Raja had come out strongly against M M Mani for insulting Vadakara MLA K K Rema inside the assembly. Though Mani responded with some unsavoury remarks against Annie Raja, the CPI state leadership did not question it.
Rajendran, in his speech, said there was no need for reacting to the statements made by Annie Raja. “However, the state leadership has asked the national executive of the party to discuss the statements being made by Annie Raja without consulting the party state leadership,” he added.
Meanwhile, the CPI state secretary did not address any of the criticisms made by the delegates against his style of functioning and also on the performance of the home department. Delegates had also raised complaints against the performance of the party ministers. But Rajendran did not make any comment on these in his speech.
‘It’s not Pinarayi govt, but LDF govt’
There was strong criticism against the chief minister and also against branding the LDF government as ‘Pinarayi government’. The delegates were of the view that none of the Left governments in the past were a single person centric and there was a collective leadership for the government. Now, by branding the government as ‘Pinarayi government’, it has started distancing itself from the people.
The state has seen Communist chief ministers like C Achuthamenon, P K Vasudevan Nair and E K Nayanar. But the style of functioning of Pinarayi Vijayan is keeping the people away from the government, the delegates said.
They said even the CPI state leadership was playing second fiddle to the CPM. The state leadership is maintaining silence on several crucial issues in which the party has to react, they said.
On the performance of the party ministers there was severe criticism against the food and civil supplies department and also against the agriculture department.
Former MLA Mangodu Radhakrishnan was elected as the party district secretary on the concluding day of the party district conference.