THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the gold smuggling case snowballs into a major political conspiracy threatening the Left government, the Left front has hit back with a strong defence. With the Opposition scaling up its attack on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the CMO itself came under scanner, the LDF had initially found itself on the backfoot. However sensing a political setback after a deliberate move to portray it as LDF government’s ‘Solar scam’, the Left leadership is now in fighting mode.
As an immediate measure, M Sivasankar was removed from the post. The Chief Minister on Tuesday held talks with the CPM leadership and has categorically rejected any kind of involvement of the CMO in the smuggling case. While the UDF has been demanding a CBI probe into the issue, both the Chief Minister and the CPM leadership made it clear that the government is ready for any investigation, including a probe by Interpol into the incident.
Amidst the raging controversy, the CPM Central leadership too stepped in to assess the ground situation. The party is of the view that since it’s a matter related to national security, it doesn’t come under the purview of the state government.The CPM leadership came out stating that neither the LDF nor the state government will protect the wrong-doers and all the accused would be brought before the law. CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan demanded that a comprehensive probe be carried out to bring all those involved in the gold smuggling case before law.
“Whoever has done wrong will not go scot-free. This is going to be the government’s approach. Neither the government nor the LDF will protect anyone involved in the issue,” reiterated Kodiyeri. Terming the campaign against the party politically ill-motivated, the CPM state chief said such campaigns are totally baseless. The ongoing investigation by the Customs, a Central agency, will bring out the facts, Kodiyeri said.
Speaking to the media, CPM Politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai said the party has no issue in conducting any investigation, including a CBI probe. “Currently Customs is probing the case. Even if Interpol investigates the issue, the party would have no opposition,” he said.