THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Opposition which has until now been demanding Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s resignation after his office came under a cloud of suspicion in the gold smuggling case has come up with another demand — that he should be questioned by investigating agencies. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said the time has come to do this.
Chennithala alleged that Pinarayi is a party to treason as Sandeep Nair, one of the key suspects in the case, had claimed that M Sivasankar, former principal secretary to the CM, had helped the suspects in smuggling gold.
Talking to reporters here on Sunday, he alleged Pinarayi has deliberately feigned ignorance about what is happening in his office. The state has become a “consultancy raj” as consultant agencies have been appointed against the central CPM leadership’s decision, he said.
On Pinarayi’s charge that the Opposition has been trying to defame the LDF government, Chennithala said the government never had a good image to boast of. “Pinarayi had been claiming that the officials who had committed mistakes would be punished. If that’s the case, then Pinarayi should also be questioned. Pinarayi had claimed that he was not aware of what’s happening in his office.
Moreover, CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had said in a television interview that he was surprised that Pinarayi was not aware of his former principal secretary being ‘this smart’,” said Chennithala. He also demanded to know from Pinarayi whether the LDF government had taken a decision to cancel the consultancy agreement given to Londonbased PricewaterhouseCoopers as there is a lack of clarity on this.