Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has warned his detractors not to attempt to intimidate him and has cautioned against attempts to repeat 1959 (the liberation struggle).
Speaking at a public meeting organised in connection with the 10th annual conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) here on Sunday, Mr. Vijayan took a dig at the CPI, which has taken a stand opposed to the CPI(M) and the Chief Minster in the Kerala Law Academy Law College issue.
“Don’t ever hope to trouble the government by moving along with the BJP. We had seen such games being played earlier,” said Mr. Vijayan in a tacit reference to CPI leader Pannian Ravindran visiting BJP leader V. Muraleedharan who was earlier on a hunger strike at the law academy issue.
“I cannot open up any further. My present position prevents me from speaking out more,” he said.
Mr. Vijayan said he did not mean to insult P.S. Nataraja Pillai, former Minister, whose father owned the holding, which was later assigned to the law academy.
The Chief Minister said he could not quickly recollect the name of the former Minister while speaking to media persons in Kozhikode the other day where he referred to the departed leader as one Mr. Pillai.
On his Kozhikode statement which invited public criticism, Mr. Vijayan clarified that he intended to say that it was now impossible to give back the holding to the successors of Nataraja Pillai as demanded by some quarters. He also asserted that he stood by his statement on the issue.
According to Mr. Vijayan, the land in question was given on lease to the college by M.N. Govindan Nair, when he was the Agriculture Minister. Later, former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran assigned the land. The holding was assigned not through a secret act but a public move. If anyone had any complaints regarding the assignment, it should have been made public then, he said.
He also took a potshot at Congress leader K. Muraleedharan, who was on a hunger strike on the college issue, by stating that he had fought his father on past occasions too.
In his address, Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of CPI(M), said the BJP and RSS were fighting scams, which stood for Scheduled Castes and minorities in the country. He was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that the government and the party were attempting to fight scams, which could be expanded as scams, Congress, Akhilesh and Mayawati.
Besides the DYFI leaders, CPI(M) leaders M.A. Baby and P. Rajeev also attended. Earlier, thousands of DYFI activists rallied to Marine Drive where a public meeting was held.
