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Pillai gives clean chit to Antony

By Our Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM March 5. The Kerala Congress(B) leader, R. Balakrishna Pillai, a hard critic of the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, till the other day, today gave a clean chit to him in the Muthanga incidents. Not only that, he even went to the extent of doing a somersault on the controversial Maudany issue which had put the inter-party relations within the UDF under severe pressure a few months ago.

In what appears to be a slow moving political dance being enacted as part of cozying up to the UDF leadership, the once belligerent Pillai, who is expected to avail of a berth in the State Cabinet shortly, extended unconditional support to the Chief Minister's stance on the Adivasi issue and alleged, ``Janu had cheated Anotny''.

According to him, the real villain in the story was the Central Government which took a firm stand against releasing land for distribution purpose. Government officials who gave an exaggerated figure regarding available land were also culprits, he said. He was also against a judicial inquiry into the Muthanga incidents.

On the controversial Maudany issue, Mr. Pillai pointed out that it was not Mr. Antony, but the UDF which had given assurances (on taking steps for the release of the People's Democratic Party leader, Abdul Nasir Maudany, who is accused in the Coimbatore serial bomb blast case). Whatever we could do was done here, but the Tamil Nadu Government did not extend the expected support, he said.

Mr. Pillai said he did not harbour any ill feelings against those sections in the CPI(M) which targeted him through the Graphite case or those in the UDF who were misled by the issue.

Reacting to a question, Mr. Pillai said he was not supportive of the argument for hiking bus fare.

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