Chief Minister has converted Kerala into a gangster State, says Opposition Leader V.D. Satheesan

Opposition Leader V.D. Satheesan has accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of turning Kerala into a "gangster State". He alleged that Mr. Vijayan had ordered the killing of opponents and razing of houses while serving as CPI(M) State Secretary. Satheesan also criticised the Chief Minister's defence of DYFI activists who manhandled Youth Congress workers. He warned that UDF leaders will stage black flag protests if activists are manhandled. Satheesan also accused the Kerala Government of taking out a political campaign at taxpayers' expense.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has converted Kerala into a gangster State, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has alleged.

Speaking to media persons in Kochi on November 21, 2023, Mr. Satheesan said Mr. Vijayan was “a man with a criminal mindset.” Criminals and goons were accompanying the Chief Minister in the Navakerala Sadas. No Chief Minister of the State had ever justified criminals and goons as Mr. Vijayan did, said Mr. Satheesan, while criticising the Chief Minister’s defence of DYFI activists who manhandled Youth Congress workers at Kannur while staging a black flag protest.

Mr. Satheesan alleged that Mr. Vijayan had earlier ordered the killing of his political opponents and the razing of their houses while serving as the State secretary of the CPI(M). However, Mr. Vijayan should remember that he is the Chief Minister of the State and no longer the secretary of the party, he said.

The UDF leaders and MPs and MLAs will come out to the streets to stage black flag protests against the Chief Minister if the youth and student activists staging such protests are manhandled by DYFI and CPI (M) activists. No one can deny the right to stage peaceful protests in the State, he said.

Referring to CPI(M) leaders’ allegations that Youth Congress activists had become “killers and suicide squads” who throw themselves before the bus carrying the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues, Mr. Satheesan said it was the CPI (M) which had a history of sending such squads to finish off former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. “The former Chief Minister was injured when CPI(M) activists pelted stones at the vehicle in which he was travelling,” Mr. Satheesan said.

The Leader of the Opposition alleged that the Kerala Government was taking out a political campaign at the expense of the taxpayers. The cash-strapped government was forcing officials to extort money from the general public to fund the yatra undertaken by the Ministers, he alleged.