Taking the personal sparring between him and Defence Minister A.K. Antony a step further, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Friday alleged that Mr. Antony was a fake idealist.
At a news conference here, Mr. Achuthanandan said Mr. Antony was wearing the ‘idealist mask’ while shutting his eyes to the large-scale corruption and swindling at the Centre.
In the past week, the two leaders have engaged in personal attacks against each other several times.
Referring to the Adarsh housing complex controversy, Mr. Achuthanandan claimed that it was Mr. Antony’s Defence Ministry that was the most corrupt. While the then Maharashtra Chief Minister, tainted by the Adarsh scandal, resigned, Mr. Antony had not bothered to do so; neither had he expressed regret.
Though Mr. Antony had quit as Kerala Chief Minister over Indira Gandhi’s election from Chikamagaloor, he had later chosen to stand like a rock behind Mrs. Gandhi. The ‘idealist Mr. Antony’ had chartered a flight from Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram to swear in as Chief Minister after getting K. Karunakaran out and made the Kerala tax payer to foot the Rs. 16 lakh flight bill.
Asked about Mr. Antony’s remark that the Chief Minister was acting like an Opposition Leader, Mr. Achuthanandan went on elaborating his efforts to protect the forests and the Marayoor sandalwood plantation. Because of his efforts, Mr. Achuthanandan claimed, the then Chief Minister Antony had to get the Mathikettan forests declared as a national part and thus save 5000 acres from Mr. K.M. Mani and his followers.
Mr. Achuthanandan termed it a lie Sonia Gandhi’s allegation that the LDF government had not utilised the tsunami funds allotted to Kerala by the Centre. The government had utilised Rs. 1,440 crores for the tsunami rehabilitation, he asserted. It was the former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his Minister K.M. Mani who had diverted tsunami funds for projects in Idukki and Wayanad.
The Chief Minister said that the media should not act like ‘quotation’ (paid criminals) gangs. A section of the media was doing exactly the same and they should not forget that the world would not come to an end once the election was over. He quipped that certain media barons would have to commit suicide after the elections (as the LDF would come back to power).
Regarding the Congress charge that Mr. Achuthanandan was being sponsored by Reliance, the Chief Minister said the Congress was making this allegation to divert attention from the Spectrum scandal.
