NEW DELHI /THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was in the eye of a storm on Friday after the UAE envoy to India told a Delhi newspaper that his country had never formally announced $100 million (Rs 700 crore) for the flood-ravaged state, although it had set up a task force to understand the requirements of the Indian government.
The new development put question mark over the Kerala CM’s claims earlier in the week that the UAE promised an assistance of Rs 700 crore — Rs 100 crore more than what the Centre had pledged so far— for flood relief in Kerala.
On Friday, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala demanded that the CM give an explanation in the UAE financial aid issue.
The chief of the Kerala unit of the BJP, P S Sreedharan Pillai, wondered how Vijayan manages to get such unverified news. “We want Vijayan to explain about this news and from where he received it. After the Centre expressed reservations in accepting the aid, a vicious smear campaign was unleashed against the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
However, the Kerala CM said he has no doubt about the Rs 700 crore assistance from the UAE government for Kerala’s flood relief activities. “There is no ambiguity about the UAE offer. The UAE ruler told this to our Prime Minister. Both of them announced this to the world. I hope the assistance will be received,” he told reporters in the state capital.
The Kerala CM said Malayali businessman Yusuff Ali MA had told him about the UAE aid. “Yusuff Ali had called on the UAE ruler to convey Bakrid greetings. The ruler told him that he had spoken to the Indian PM about providing $100 million assistance,” Pinarayi said, giving currency to speculation that the UAE may have informally offered the aid but changed tack after seeing New Delhi’s reluctance to accept foreign money.
The fact that the UAE had indeed offered to help was confirmed by Modi, who two days before Vijayan’s announcement had thanked the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, tweeting: “A big thanks to @hhshkmohd for his gracious offer to support people of Kerala during this difficult time. His concern reflects the special ties between governments and people of India and UAE.” But no figure was mentioned.
Politicians, former diplomats and rights organisations joined issue, either supporting or denouncing the Centre’s position. There were also reports that the Centre might be forced to rethink its position following the outrage across the nation, particularly in Kerala. In Delhi, government sources privately clarified that the government was not averse to aid for reconstruction of infrastructure, provided they did not violate the policy guidelines.
In another bizarre turn of events, Yusuff Ali MA of the Lulu Group was forced to threaten legal action against those spreading the rumour that he had pledged to donate Rs 700 crore himself following the Centre’s refusal to accept UAE’s aid.
“It’s a stupid storm in a teacup, and a sad reflection of how low our politicians — from both sides of the spectrum — can stoop, to try and extract political mileage from a such a tragedy,” said a former diplomat who has served in the Gulf states. “If indeed Vijayan was using this to shame the Centre, for whatever reason, it needs to be condemned in the strongest terms. Equally condemnable is the BJP IT head’s attempt to communalise the issue, by talking about donations from Muslim nations etc. It is time we focused on actually helping a state in major distress.”
Meanwhile, the EU on Friday announced it had donated an initial 190,000 euros to the Indian Red Cross Society for relief work in Kerala. “The aid will directly benefit 25,000 from among the most affected people in some of the worst hit areas,” it said.