Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
By Shankar Raj*
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala witnessed an unusual scene when the Thiruvananthapuram unit of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) hauled Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala Legislative Assembly Speaker AN Shamsheer, and Chief Minister’s son-in-law and minister Mohammed Riyas over the coals at a review meeting held on July 1, 2024, to discuss the party’s disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha polls.
According to leaked reports aired by television channels, speakers were critical of Pinarayi. They pointed out that he failed to come clean when reports surfaced of his daughter Veena Vijayan’s involvement in a scam. While the Chief Minister had asked his former colleague Kodeyeri Balakrishnan to come clean when his sons were involved in a scam, he failed to do so when it came to his daughter.
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office sleuths are probing into the alleged payments made by Cochin Minerals and Rutiles Limited (CMRL) to the Chief Minister’s daughter Veena’s company, Exalogic Solutions Private Limited, without providing any services.
The controversy surrounding Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena Vijayan was first raised by Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnaden who alleged that Veena allegedly received monthly payment from a private mineral company for doing nothing.
According to the MLA, who produced proof, Veena’s IT firm Exalogic got monthly gratification from Kochi-based Cochin Minerals and Rutiles Ltd, for getting mining sanction. The ED later stepped in and investigations are currently on.
Senior leaders said while Pinarayi erected iron fences when party leaders and workers tried to meet him, industrialists and businessmen had free access ‘even to his kitchen’.
Also read: Ruling Left Front faces implosion in Kerala
The Chief Minister was also flayed for his anti-people stand and he always viewed the media as his enemies.
While the State Assembly Speaker Shamsheer was called out for his links with certain businessmen, Riyas was flayed for his confrontation with senior leader and former minister Kadakampally Surendran and the way he callously handled the media.
It was Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran who attracted very sharp and incisive criticism. Speakers said that Arya was young (she is the youngest Mayor in Kerala) and showed brashness when it came to certain issues, especially the way she confronted a bus driver in the middle of the road in Thiruvananthapuram by parking her vehicle across. She displayed her raw power instead of sagacity in the issue, the speakers pointed out.
The members warned her that she should mend her ways and if there are any aberrations in the future, the party would promptly oust her from her chair.
With the Thiruvananthapuram unit firing warning shots at Pinarayi and top leaders, other units are likely to follow suit as voices in the CPI-M get shriller against the Chief Minister and senior leaders.
*Shankar Raj is a former editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
