Thiruvananthapuram, April 12 A war of words erupted between the two Communist parties in the ruling alliance of the Pinarayi Vijayan government on Saturday over the controversy surrounding his daughter Veena Vijayan’s now defunct IT firm Exalogic.
On Friday, CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam said that the CPI will stand by the Chief Minister, and not his daughter. However, he added that the Chief Minister’s daughter has every right to run a company and enter into contracts with other companies.
Meanwhile, State Education Minister V. Sivankutty, considered close to Vijayan, on Saturday, hit back at Viswam, saying that the ideal place where Viswam should have raised his views was at the LDF meeting.
“Viswam should not worry about the case against Veena. Veena knows how to handle the case against her. The case is nothing but a political one, and the LDF has strongly supported Vijayan. Viswam should put his views at the LDF meeting,” said Sivankutty.
CPI is the second biggest ally of the ruling Vijayan government, and there have been times when it has discreetly expressed displeasure in the “big brother” attitude taken by the CPI-M and Vijayan and the way he (Vijayan) has been running the government.
Viswam and his party expressed their reservation on the implementation of the PM Schools for Rising India scheme, while the last Cabinet meeting on April 9 decided to defer it.
“What’s wrong with an infrastructure project of the Centre. Viswam has opposed it and things have come to a stage where he speaks like the Leader of Opposition,” said Sivankutty.
On Friday, state CPI-M Secretary M.V. Govindan said that the case against the Chief Minister’s daughter is nothing but a conspiracy targeting the Chief Minister.
“The party is strongly behind the Chief Minister against whom this witchhunt, unleashed by agencies, a section of the media, and a few political parties, is going on. We will fight this politically,” Govindan asserted.
"I wish to ask what happened to the gold smuggling case, when similar allegations came thick and fast. There was such a hue and cry that was made by many over it... finally, today, no one even talks of it. There is a deep-rooted conspiracy right now going and we, the CPI-M, will be lock, stock, and barrel with the Chief Minister," he added.
No sooner had Govindan finished his press conference, the news surfaced that a court in Kochi, where where the SFIO had filed its charge sheet against the illegal deal between Exalogic and Kochi-based Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL), had accepted it, and a case was formally registered, after the court had a detailed examination of the charge sheet.
The SFIO has, by now, found out that Veena Vijayan's IT firm had allegedly received a monthly gratification of around Rs 2.70 crores from the CMRL for mining sanctions.
Vijayan had recently reportedly lost his cool when the media asked a flurry of questions about his daughter, and he responded curtly by saying: "You (media) want my blood, but will not get it easily."
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