THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday posed a series of questions to state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and asked him to maintain transparency in public life and desist from levelling baseless allegations against the central agencies in connection with the gold and dollar smuggling cases. Shah also alleged that UDF and LDF had been competing on the corruption front alternately in the state.
He was addressing the valedictory function of BJP state president K Surendran’s Vijaya Yatra on Shankhumukham beach. Shah said he knew about several instances of corruption in the state government but was not divulging details now since he did not want to throw the chief minister into confusion.
In response to Pinarayi’s allegations against the central agencies’ probe into gold and dollar smuggling cases, Shah posed several questions to the former. One was whether the state government had initiated a probe into the mysterious death of a person who had links with the smuggling cases. However, Shah did not reveal more.
Some party leaders told TNIE that he could be referring to the death of violinist Balabhaskar. But they could not explain the logic behind the allegation since CBI had recently concluded that there was no foul play in his death and that it was an accident due to rash driving.
“We too are in confusion on this. We hope the Union home minister will clarify soon,” said a state leader who did not want to be named.Shah also asked the chief minister to answer some other questions: Had the key accused in the gold smuggling case (Swapna Suresh) accompanied him and his suspended principal secretary M Sivasankar in their foreign tours? Was she a regular visitor to Cliff House? Did the chief minister’s office exert pressure on the customs to let free the accused in the controversial smuggling case?
Shah’s questions gain significance since the CM had earlier refuted these allegations. “Maybe, the Union minister has evidence to prove these. Or else, he would not have repeated these questions,” the BJP leader said.Shah appealed to the people to give BJP a chance in the coming assembly elections. The Union government had given projects worth Rs 1,56,000 crore to the state in the past six years. “For once, give a chance to the leadership of BJP and Narendra Modi to realise a new Kerala which will be the number one
state in the country,” he said.
Surendran said thousands of people had joined BJP during his statewide tour. “They all, like E Sreedharan, want the state to become better and developed. Other parties are shocked by Sreedharan’s action,” he said. In his address, technocrat Sreedharan said he still had the physical and mental power to serve Kerala. The 88-year-old’s comment was in the wake of a smear campaign focusing on his age.
Actor Devan joined BJP at the function and announced that his Kerala People’s Party has merged with BJP. Congress leader and former Pandalam panchayat president Pandalam Prathapan, the brother of former Congress minister Pandalam Sudhakaran, also joined the party. Director Vinu Kiriyath, actor Radha and former civil servant K V Balakrishnan were among the others who joined the party. BJP’s election slogan ‘Puthiya Keralam Modikkoppam’ (New Kerala is with Modi) was announced at the function.
Min slams LDF govt, Cong over sabarimala
Amit Shah alleged that Congress had maintained silence when the Pinarayi government attacked Ayyappa devotees. Shah appealed to the people to give BJP a chance in the coming assembly elections.