THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Building up a strong resistance against the ED raids on Pinarayi Vijayan’s house, CPM leaders including general secretary M A Baby, senior politburo members, and state secretary M V Govindan, accompanied by large numbers of workers, took to the streets in protest across the state and in New Delhi on Wednesday.
During the protest in Delhi, police detained Baby and politburo members Brinda Karat, Ashok Dhawale, Mariyam Dhawale and Vijoo Krishnan.
The party denounced the raids while training its guns on Congress and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi who, during the assembly election campaign, had demanded Pinarayi’s arrest by central agencies.
In a statement, Baby alleged that the raid is a targeted attack on top opposition leaders by the BJP government. “Such action will not intimidate either Pinarayi Vijayan or the CPM,” he said.
The CPM state secretariat organised a statewide protest against the ED raids. “The party will organise protests at district, area, and local centres,” Govindan told reporters. The party called upon its workers to organise demonstrations with torches at all branches.
“The BJP-led Union government is aiming to weaken the CPM through an organised attack against its leader. Pinarayi has no link to the case. The Rs 1.72-crore bank transaction between Veena Vijayan’s company Exalogic and CMRL was carried out through official banking channels. She also paid the income tax. There is nothing illegal in it. Two ministers in the current UDF government had admitted that they had received money from CMRL. Yet there has been no probe against them,” he said.
In a statement, the CPI state secretariat said the ED raids have raised serious questions.
“People want to know whether the Congress has changed its earlier stand that central agencies are being misused by the Union government,” it said.
The CPI national secretariat also condemned the ED raids.
