Oppn nails Pinarayi over arrests of two CPI (M) workers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As promised by the opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala to the parents of the two arrested Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists from Kozhikode in November last year, and the case now being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Tuesday raised the arrest to nail Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who again failed to explain the exact reason for the arrests.

The two students of law and journalism, Allen Shuaib and Thaha Fazil, both CPM workers, were arrested in November from their home town in Kozhikode, after the police recovered Maoist leaflets that condemned the government’s action in Jammu & Kashmir.

Seeking leave for an adjournment motion in the floor of the Kerala Assembly, it was deputy leader of the opposition M K Muneer first hit hard on Pinarayi and pointed out that since their arrest, you (Pinarayi) have failed to give the exact reason for their arrests and rules permit for the state government to get back the case by seeking the permission of the Centre.

"There has been lot of contradictions as your party general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that they will seek all legal options to help them and then your Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan, first said they continue to be your party members, but then hastily changed his position after your top state leader M V Govindan said the youths are not CPM members. Please let us know what wrong have they done, mere possessing literature is not a crime. You come to my house, I have books on Communism and also on RSS, does it mean I am either a Communist or an RSS," asked Muneer.

Replying to it, Pinarayi said the case was taken over by the NIA according to rules that was framed when P Chidamabaram was the Home Minister and do you think I will catch the feet of Amit Shah.

"The police here registered charges under UAPA and the state government’s role, should such charges continue, comes after a committee submits its report, but before that the NIA took over the case. All similar cases like MISA, POTA, UAPA were all framed by the Congress and it was done without analyzing, if it will be misused. In Kerala itself a few of our leaders have been targeted using these laws. We all know that to oppose us, you support Maoists and what should happen is a wrong should be identified and corrected and it should not be supported," hit back Pinarayi.

Then came the turn of Chennithala who said that he along with Muneer had visited the homes of the two youths and all are baffled that they have no clue on what wrong they did.

"If you can catch the feet of Governor, then what prevents you doing the same of Shah. In fact you did that also, when you were in Delhi, the last time. In my tenure as Home Minister, we also registered cases under UAPA, but everything was cleanly done, however in this case, so many months have passed and you still are not able to say what wrong they did and even your own ally- the CPI top leader Prakash Babu has compared you to the UP chief minister Yogi. All like to know what crime did these two youths do, asked Chennithala.

Later Chennithala led the entire opposition out of the house to protest the denial of having a discussion on this topic.