‘Like the emperor fiddling while Rome burned, they're busy feasting on chicken legs here, want change what a change indeed’

IDUKKI: Former minister and CPM leader M M Mani strongly criticized Chief Minister V D Satheesan for attending a party at the house of a Muslim League leader in Ponnani, while the state is reeling under heavy rains. He criticized the chief minister via a Facebook post.

‘We have heard of Emperor Nero, who allegedly played the fiddle when Rome was burning. Eating chicken legs. Yet all they want is change,’ Mani wrote on Facebook. The post has drawn mixed reactions.

The comments include, ‘When people were neck-deep in floodwaters, there was someone who opened the dams’ and ‘we miss the captain who would starve for a week after a single spell of rain.’

The controversy broke out after the chief minister attended a lunch hosted at the Ponnani residence of Muslim Youth League vice president Faisal Bafaqui Thangal. Videos of the visit went viral on social media, prompting criticism from the opposition and others. The footage was shared by Faisal Bafakhi himself, with the comment section quickly filling with critical responses.

Meantime, another controversy has surfaced over the chief minister's use of a government helicopter for a private purpose, with social media users reviving a 2019 Facebook post by former MLA V T Balram. The old post has resurfaced after allegations that V D Satheesan used a government helicopter to visit his ailing father-in-law.

Back in 2019, V T Balram’s Facebook post said, ‘Is he Vijayan or Jayan? If he had a helicopter, he could have shot seven or eight people.’

As the post sparked widespread trolling, Balram later asked not to troll him.

In a subsequent Facebook post, Balram wrote

‘If the government-leased helicopter is being misused in any way, the appropriate response is not to troll me on social media. The official opposition must act responsibly, criticize such misuse, and hold the government accountable.

The opposition leader is provided with a car, an official residence, staff, and Cabinet rank precisely for such responsibilities. Let the opposition leader raise the helicopter issue responsibly, and let the government answer for it.’