THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was Italy vs China in the Assembly on Monday. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s remark that the Enrica Lexie case would be handled differently from earlier similar cases sparked off heated exchanges.
Chandy said that in 2008, a foreign ship had rammed into a boat off Kannur killing one person and injuring two others. But the culprits slipped away after depositing Rs 25 lakh. “There has been no action since. It was a Chinese ship,” he said. There were also two incidents in 2010 where the foreign vessels got off scot-free, he said.
Earlier in the day, CPM’s P K Gurudasan’s barb that the UDF Government was trembling at the mention of Italians had touched a raw nerve.
And so, Chandy’s perceived emphasis on ‘Chinese ship’ did not go down well with CPI’s C Divakaran, who wanted to know why the CM had stressed the ‘Chinese’ part.