Thiruvananthapuram: The wheel appears to have come full circle in Kerala as the Pinrayi Vijayan government is facing the same political situation as the veteran Congress leader Oommen Chandy faced during his tenure in 2011-16.
Chandy and his office had came under severe duress as the CPI-M led Left led by Pinarayi Vijayan had blamed Chandy for all the scams that then surfaced, mainly the Solar scam, when a lady was identified to have close links with a few staff of Chandy, the same now seems not to apply to Vijayan.
With scams and scandals surfacing and the Congress-led opposition going hammer and tongs against the Vijayan government, TV news channels are time and again airing all what Vijayan then said against Chandy and his office.
In the first tenure of Vijayan (2016-21), the gold smuggling scam surfaced and his principal secretary, a top IAS official M.Sivasankar had to cool his heels in jail for his close links with the prime accused in the case Swapna Suresh and is presently out on bail. Sivasankar has been removed from Vijayan’s office.
When the opposition breathed fire about the grave issue of Vijayan’s office being involved in the scam, the entire Left and its leadership strongly defended Vijayan and gave him a clean chit stating that it was only Sivasankar who was responsible, something which was denied to Chandy.
Moreover, the Kerala High Court on Thursday gave a sound beating when it categorically ruled that Priya Varghese, wife of K.K. Ragesh, the powerful private secretary of Vijayan does not have the required qualifications to apply for the post of Associate Professor at the Kannur University. She has been “ranked” first in the list, putting others with wider experience and qualifications behind her.
Since the ruling came, TV channels have been airing the response of Vijayan when this controversy erupted.
Vijayan in an angry mood had asked “Is anything wrong if the spouse or family members apply for a job.”
Jacob Skaria, who has been ranked second said Priya Varghese made no bones when he said that if she wouldn’t have been wife of Ragesh, such an application would not have seen the light of the day.
On Friday, the Kannur University vice-chancellor Gopinath Ravindran told the media that they will not appeal against the high court verdict.
A media critic on condition of anonymity said the two incidents – Sivasankar and Ragesh’s role in what has surfaced has definitely sullied Vijayan’s and his office image.
“One thing none will forget is, when Chandy came under duress, he was seen facing the media whenever the media wanted a byte and he also presented himself before a judicial commission sitting before the commission for hours together, but just look at Vijayan and all what he spoke against Chandy then, is hitting back at him. Vijayan turns incommunicado whenever things turn tough for him and keeps out the media for long periods.”
“Another aspect is if things are sour for the Congress and the BJP, he immediately takes to the social media and slams them, but he does not even make an entry, when scams break out against him or his government,” said the critic and added whosoever tries to defend him, he is certainly also responsible for all what has happened, as there are ‘bad boys’ in his office too.
Now all eyes are on the fresh assembly session slated to open on December 5, when it could be a fight to finish between the treasury and the Opposition benches.
–IANS