Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday took a dig at the Narendra Modi government and without naming the Adani group said “capitalists” who had benefitted from the Centre were being exposed globally.
“No amount of communal polarisation can cover up what is really happening around us. Now, we are seeing capitalists who are beneficiaries of the current ruling dispensation at the Centre being exposed internationally,” Vijayan said in a veiled reference to the Hindenburg Research report that uncovered the alleged financial malpractices by the Adani group.
He was addressing the open session of the 10th national conference of the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) in Howrah.
The CPM chief minister’s indirect reference to the Adani group is significant as the Kerala chief minister had backed Adani group’s Vizhinjam port project even in the face of violent resistance from local fishermen. The fishermen had been demanding the scrapping of the project but Vijayan made it clear last year that the government would not backtrack on the project.
Although Vijayan has backed the project to the hilt, his party, the CPM, has been a critique of the Adani group. The party has been questioning how the wealth of Gautam Adani’s industrial empire has multiplied under the Narendra Modi regime post-2014.
With the expose by US short-seller Hindenburg, the CPM has started sharpening its attack against the Adani group. Replying to a question from The Telegraph on what the party’s stand on the Kerala government’s support for the Vizhinjam port was, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury had said on January 30: “The agreement for the port was done during the Congress rule. We (Vijayan government) cannot help but go ahead with it. If we try to scrap it now, there will be severe legal and financial complications.”
The foundation for the Vizhinjam port was laid by former Kerala chief minister and Congress leader Oomen Chandy in December 2015.
Apart from taking a jibe at the Adani fiasco, Vijayan attacked Modi, again without naming him, over the BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots that projected the Prime Minister in a questionable light.
“We are also seeing those in high offices in our country being exposed for their crimes against humanity,” he said. Shortly after, he referred to the three-day-long income tax “surveys” at Delhi and Mumbai offices of the BBC and said it was prompted by the expose by the channel.
“Provoked by it (the expose), its office was raided, with scant regard to the concept of the freedom of media. Instead of examining the findings of the media, the government is resorting to retaliatory steps which are detrimental to freedom of expression,” he said.
Vijayan also tore into the Centre for its anti-people policies and alleged that it practised “coercive federalism” instead of cooperative federalism
Speaking on the Centre’s alleged tendency to throttle India’s federal structure, Vijayan said both Bengal and Kerala were victims of attacks on the states. He alleged that the Centre was passing laws that infringed upon the matters mentioned in the state list of the Constitution.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s relationship with the former governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has been equally strenuous as that between Vijayan and Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan.
“Widespread efforts are on to take control of the higher education sector through governors, in their capacity as chancellors. Assent to legislations that have been enacted by the state legislatures are being withheld,” he added.
Asking his comrades in Bengal to pledge a fight against BJP’s communal polarisation, Vijayan referred to the year-long farmers’ movement against the three contentious farm bills brought by the Centre.
The movement saw the death of 700 activists but resulted in the union government repealing the laws. “This is the time for us to come together and further expose them among the people. The farmers’ struggle is a lesson to us that we need to come together and fight relentlessly,” Vijayan said.
With state CPM secretary Mohd Salim, Left Front chairman Biman Bose and other Left leaders by his side, Vijayan also took a dig at the Trinamul Congress government in the state. He accused the Mamata Banerjee government of rampant corruption at panchayat levels and in recruitment.
“Money meant for the upliftment of the people end up in the pockets of the TMC’s henchmen...Over the last 12 years, hundreds of our cadres have been killed and displaced. Many of them were agricultural workers,” he said.
Sources in Bengal CPM said Vijayan was invited as the chief guest of the event because under his leadership, “Kerala has become a true alternative to divisive and corrupt forces”.
