BJP asks Kerala CM to be open about who is doing his PR work

Kochi: Kerala BJP President K. Surendran urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to be open and tell those handling his public relations (PR) work on Wednesday.

A scandal erupted after the chief minister of Kerala, in an interview with an English daily in New Delhi on September 30, allegedly stated that the police seized 150 kg of gold and hawala money worth Rs 123 crore from the Malappuram district over the previous five years.

The Chief Minister reportedly said in the interview that these funds were being utilised for anti-state and anti-national purposes.

The national daily later came out with an apology stating that there was a PR agency which fixed the appointment with the Chief Minister and there were two people with it and one of them later had asked them to include this statement also.

“People wish to know who is paying the money for the PR work of Vijayan. If it’s done by someone who has been entrusted by the state government or by the CPI-M. If it’s paid from the state exchequer then it has to come under proper scrutiny,” said Surendran.

“Vijayan is fake and no other Chief Minister in Kerala has stooped to such low levels. It’s really strange to see and hear that he decided to give the now controversial interview to just one English daily,” added Surendran.

“It was a ploy by Vijayan to tell the world that he is the person who is strongly against gold smuggling, hawala and terror activities. But the truth of the matter is, in the past more than eight years of Vijayan’s governance, it’s he who has aided such people who have engaged in such activities. The state now in Kerala is such that, Vijayan’s credibility has hit rock-bottom and he has no moral right to continue in office,” said Surendran.

He added that the state BJP is organising a protest at all the 14 district headquarters on Friday demanding his resignation.

“By now it’s also become very clear that whenever Vijayan is in a tight spot, the Kerala Police comes to his help just as they helped Swapna Suresh (now controversial prime accused in the infamous Kerala gold smuggling case) to slip out of the state and also to put a break on the ongoing probe by various national agencies,” said Surendran.

“That’s why Vijayan is supporting the police despite the grave allegations levelled by Left independent legislator P.V. Anvar about the rampant gold smuggling being reported in Kerala. The present standoff between Anvar and Vijayan is not on any ideology but difference of opinion has surfaced over sharing the booty. Despite Anvar levelling grave allegations, Vijayan has done nothing against him because he fears Anvar,” Surendran claimed.

Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday slammed both the traditional political rivals in Kerala (CPI-M-led Left and Congress-led UDF), who are part of the INDIA bloc, for turning the state into a gold smuggling and Hawala hub.

“Other states are competing to become economic, jobs/skills hubs but because of Congress criminal enterprises and Left desperate appeasement politics, Kerala has been doomed to this. Shameful, is this the ‘new Kerala’,” asked Chandrasekhar who lost to Shashi Tharoor at the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.