Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 7 (BPNS)
The CPI delegates attending the party Pathanamthitta district committee have lashed out against party secretary, Kanam Rajendran. Several party delegates said that Kanam is functioning as a slave of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
It may be noted that CPI is a constituent of the Left Democratic Government (LDF) of Kerala with four ministers in the cabinet and a Deputy Speaker. The CPI has been sore that the second LDF government is being termed as the Pinarayi government instead of the LDF government and the party district conferences that are underway in all the districts have been vociferous with this criticism.
A delegate in the party Pathanamthitta district conference while speaking to IANS said, “ The CPI state secretary is now acting as a slave of Pinarayi Vijayan. CPI is a political party which had uphold its dignity under all the circumstances and we don’t know why the state secretary is playing second fiddle to Chief Minister and supporting him in each and every move.”
The second LDF government of Pinarayi Vijayan has drawn flak on several counts including the revelations of the gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh on the role played by Chief Minister and his family. The CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran has been the first person to defend the Chief Minister in that issue and in several other developing issues in the state.
It may be noted that former CPI leaders like late Veliyam Bhargavan and late C.K. Chandrappan while serving as state secretaries had strongly defended the party and stood up to the CPM on the left front. The CPI cadres are sore that Kanam Rajendran who was also termed a powerful leader has been working as a B team of the CPM and a main defender of the Chief Minister.
In the recent issue of CPM leader and former Minister, M.M. Mani using derogatory words against opposition woman legislator, K.K. Rema, CPI national leader Annie Raja had come out against Mani. However, Kanam shot it down stating that the statement of Annie Raja’s comments was not the opinion of the Kerala unit of the CPI. This has also come under scathing criticism from the CPI cadres who are attending the party conference.
CPI leaders also came out strongly against state health minister and CPM leader, Veena George and said that the health developments of Kerala which were recognized even by the global media during the previous LDF government were spoiled by the functioning of the present health minister. The CPI leaders in the committee said that Veena George was not even picking up the telephone calls of CPI leaders and said that a minister with phone phobia is unacceptable.
