Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slams Opposition Leader for ‘intemperate outbursts and use of offending remarks’

kerala chief minister pinarayi vijayan slams opposition Leader for intemperate outbursts. Accuses Congress of vilification campaign. Criticizes v.d. Satheesan for denying MLAs opportunity to hold govt. accountable. Claims increasing bipartisan support for public outreach. Reels out figures of petitions resolved by Cabinet. Disapproves of using children's school time for non-study purposes.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on November 23, 2023 slammed Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan for his “intemperate outbursts and use of offensive remarks”, which the former alleged was increasingly bordering on the personal.

Speaking to reporters in Wayanad, Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Satheesan seemed to be giving vent to his anger that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition’s much tom-tommed boycott of the Cabinet’s public outreach programme, Navakerala Sadas, had petered out.

Mr. Vijayan said “personal insults and abusive language” against him would not retard the momentum of the programme. “People are at the venues by seven in the morning to directly present their needs to the Cabinet. They leave the venue feeling gratified”, he said.

Mr. Vijayan accused the Congress leadership of sanctioning a vilification campaign to “belittle” him. He alleged that a Congress leader had attempted to question his ancestry’s legitimacy. “The insinuation had scarce effect on me since I was born to a proper and caring father”, Mr. Vijayan said.

“Mr. Satheesan’s tone and language have taken a turn for the worse. Is it of his own volition, or is the Opposition Leader receiving the wrong advice?” Mr. Vijayan asked.

Mr. Vijayan said Opposition legislators were peeved that Mr. Satheesan had denied them the unique opportunity to flag their constituency’s issues directly with the Cabinet.

He accused Mr. Satheesan of denying Opposition MLAs the opportunity to hold the government accountable publicly and wring solutions from the administration in the presence of their voters.