THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress national spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi on Sunday put party state leaders in a spot after he tweeted that the LDF government granting three days’ relaxation in the Covid protocol for Bakrid celebrations was “deplorable”. Coming at a time when the Congress leadership in the state has burnt its fingers in the minority scholarship issue, they are treading cautiously on Singhvi’s remarks.
However, senior leader and MP K Muraleedharan has urged the leadership to discuss the scholarship issue in the high-powered Political Affairs Committee (PAC). Singhvi, a Rajya Sabha MP, took to Twitter against the state government’s decision to bring in relaxations for Bakrid after Uttar Pradesh had cancelled the Kanwar Yatra. It was cancelled after the Yogi Adityanath government requested the Yatra organisers to do so.
“Deplorable act by Kerala Govt to provide 3 days relaxations for Bakra eid celebrations especially because it’s one of the hotbeds for Covid-19 at present. If Kanwar Yatra is wrong, so is Bakra Eid public celebrations (sic),” Singhvi tweeted. All the senior Congress leaders in the state have shied away from reacting to their central leader’s tweet. A top leader, on condition of anonymity, told TNIE that Singhvi’s concern was quite understandable when the third wave of the pandemic is lurking round the corner. The central Congress leadership too has termed his tweet as his personal view so as not to antagonise the minority community further.
Though former chief minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition Leader V D Satheesan have maintained that there is no confusion regarding the minority scholarship issue, a majority of the leaders — including state Congress president K Sudhakaran — has not elaborated on the controversy. Sudhakaran has, however, said that the Congress and the UDF stand will soon be conveyed to the state government.
atheesan said the minority scholarship issue had already been discussed in the last PAC meeting, which Muraleedharan had boycotted.
“I had discussed with Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty on the need to sustain the Sachar Committee and Paloli Mohammed Kutty Committee reports. Unfortunately, E T Mohammed Basheer, MP, was unaware of the discussion we had. The Muslim League’s demand was not taken up by the LDF government. We will be discussing the minority scholarship issue both in the PAC and the UDF meetings soon,” he said.