SOURCE: HT
Kerala opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Sunday questioned the CPI (M)’s silence over Chinese act of aggression killing 20 Indian soldiers last week and said the communist party’s ideological baggage makes it soft towards India’s neighbour. “Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is holding a press briefing every day. He did not utter a single word about the brutal killing of our soldiers. Even party general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s words are subdued in this regard. We want the party to explain its position,” Chennithala said.
He added that the CPI(M)’s youth wing usually carries out poster wars all over the state on such issues, but it was silent this time. “It seems the party is still soft towards China. We have many examples to cite to prove this point,” he said referring to the party’s controversial position after the 1962 China attack.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also questioned the left party’s silence over the martyrdom of Indian soldiers. “If anything happens in any part of the world, the CM reacts immediately, but this time he is totally silent. It shows the party’s true allegiance,” said BJP state president K Surendran.
Amid war of words, the Congress has decided to rally behind PCC president Mullappally Ramachandran who was targeted for his controversial remarks against state health minister K K Shailaja. He had called her ‘Covid Rani’ and ‘Nipah Rajkumari’ two days ago inviting intense criticism. The CM had dubbed these remarks anti-women and questioned the Congress Party’s silence over them.
“We don’t need a certificate from the CM. People know who uses the most abusive language in the state. The CM is targeting him to deflect attention from expatriates’ woes,” Chennithala said, adding more than 280 people from the state died due to covid-19 in Gulf countries but the CM was blocking their return citing lame excuses.
Though the PCC chief’s remarks triggered a controversy, he refused to apologise saying a section of the media had twisted his words and ‘Rani’ and ‘Rajkumari’ were not derogatory terms. He had made these remarks on Friday while Inaugurating Ramesh Chennithala’s day-long fast in front of the state secretariat demanding the withdrawal of a government circular insisting on Covid-free certificates for expatriates returning to the state.
Meanwhile, the state’s virus graph is going up steadily with 133 new cases taking the total to 3,172 positive cases so far. Out of these, 1,490 are active and 1,659 have recovered. The state has reported 22 deaths so far. The difficulty in tracing contacts of fresh cases is worrying the state. On Sunday, it reported the highest single day spike of 133 cases since the outbreak began in the state in January last.
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