Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 17 Under fire from the Congress led opposition for keeping stoic silence when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan went ahead with tweaking the Kerala Lokayukta rules through an Ordinance, the CPI, the second biggest ally in the ruling Left government expressed their displeasure at the weekly cabinet meeting held here on Thursday.
State Revenue Minister K. Rajan, during the cabinet meeting expressed their displeasure over being kept in the dark and for not giving time to discuss it.
Vijayan however shot back by saying that the cabinet notes to it was circulated in advance and he assumed that the CPI would have discussed it.
Incidentally it was in January when Vijayan presided over the cabinet meeting appearing online from his hospital bed in the US that the controversial amendment tweaking the Lokayukta was passed by the cabinet and only after a few days did the news surface of this amendment.
The Congress and the BJP here went to town against this amendment, which they said was done purposefully by Vijayan, as there was a case which was coming up before the Lokayukta for misuse of the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund and slammed the CPI for being a mute witness to it, for fear of being taken on by Vijayan and the CPI-M.
The CPI State Secretary Kanam Rajendran, then, on a few occasions openly expressed his displeasure on the matter and said that such an important issue was not at all discussed in the Left Democratic Front committee meeting, which is the body that controls the Vijayan government and even went to the extent of asking why was there undue haste in coming out with an Ordinance, when the budget session of the assembly was round the corner and a Bill to this effect could have been floated.
A media critic on condition of anonymity said these are all tactics by the CPI, who have cut a sorry figure, as all knows that it's Vijayan who reigns supreme and the allies are just silent partners.
"The best statement that can be said is 'closing the stable door after the horse has bolted' and that's what the CPI has done now. This is done to keep their cadres happy as their state party conference is round the corner and the leadership will have to give an explanation on why the four CPI Ministers in the cabinet kept silent, when such an important issue was pushed through without even a discussion," said the critic.
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