THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A leader of the ruling CPI (M) in Kerala has courted controversy by his alleged provocative statement against the State Congress chief.
The man who is hogging the limelight for the wrong reasons is Idukki district secretary of the ruling CPI (M) C V Varghese.
While addressing a party function in Cheruthoni town, Varghese, in the presence of senior leaders such as M M Mani, reportedly said that State Congress president K Sudhakaran was spared by the party since the party is not keen on "bumping off a deplorable person." In that way, the party has been charitable towards Sudhakaran. His life is an alms given by the CPI (M), he said, adding that his party is not interested in targeting "disgusting creatures."
The video of Varghese's speech made on Tuesday evening had gone viral on social media triggering a row.
Varghese's statement was in retaliation to Sudhakaran's statement defending the assassins of (Students Federation of India) SFI worker Dheeraj Rajendran in Idukki. Sudhakaran defended the suspect in the case and Youth Congress leader Nikhil Pylee, who was arrested by the Idukki police on charges of murdering the engineering student recently. Sudhakaran said nobody has seen who had stabbed Dheeraj and Nikhil was actually trying to run away from a violent SFI mob.
Following Varghese's outburst, Congress has demanded a case to be registered against him under a non-bailable section.
Leader of the opposition V D Satheesan pondered that it seems the lives of political leaders in the state are in the hands of CPI (M) leaders. He said the language used by Varghese is similar to the language used by "street goons."
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that it is unfortunate that the CPI (M) has stooped to such a new low.