THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Chief Minister’s Office and the government came in for sharp criticism in an article written by CPI assistant secretary K Prakash Babu in the party mouthpiece ‘Janayugam’ on Sunday. The article did not spare Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan either for inaugurating the car workshop of one of the accused in the gold smuggling case in Nedumangad.
Later in the day, senior CPI leader C Divakaran, MLA, also said the Speaker should have stayed away from the controversy, like he did when he declined to attend the gold smuggling suspects’ ‘Carbon Doctor’ workshop belonging to Sandeep Nair in his Nedumangad constituency. In a shocking revelation, the CPI assistant secretary also said more than 45 consultancies like Pricewaterhouse- Coopers and KPMG have been roped in by the Left government without calling tenders. He came down heavily also on Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel who has been embroiled in a controversy for liaising with the suspects involved in the gold smuggling case. “There are certain norms when it comes to liaising with the consulates of foreign countries. There is an attempt to divert the attention from the exact crime committed by trying to portray the gold smuggling case as a romantic case,” the article says.
When the LDF government came to power, big-time lobbyists and sand mining mafia had tried to reach out to the constituents but they were kept at bay.
“They knew that it was not easy to influence the Left leaders and hence approached the bureaucrats. If the bureaucrats have fallen into the trap, it is their responsibility to answer the questions,” says the article.
Prakash Babu also recalled the way the CPI had opposed the Aathirapilly hydroelectricity project which was against the LDF manifesto.