Activists of the Youth Congress on Tuesday staged a protest against Vivek Tankha, a Congress Rajya Sabha member and senior Supreme Court lawyer, for his decision to appear in the High Court on behalf of Transport Minister Thomas Chandy.
According to the police, a group of Youth Congress workers raised slogans and waved black flags at Mr. Tankha as he stepped out of his place of stay, a luxury hotel, to proceed to the High Court in the morning.
The protesters, led by Youth Congress leader and Corporation councillor Thampi Subramaniam, shouted slogans at the lawyer while a few of them even attempted to get on top of his vehicle. A police team soon intervened and cleared the protesters.
Chennithala flays CM
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has termed the observations of the Kerala High Court while rejecting a writ petition filed by Mr. Chandy as a slap on the face of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who stood solidly behind the tainted Minister.
Talking to mediapersons at Kozhinjampara near here on the sidelines of his Padayorukkam Yatra on Tuesday, Mr. Chennithala said the court observation that the Ministry lacked collective responsibility reflected the degeneration in the ruling dispensation.
‘‘The Chief Minister remained idle when one of his Cabinet colleagues approached the court against his own government. The court observation that the Minister had lost trust in the Chief Minister and the government is very serious,’’ he said.
Stating that the UDF would not allow Mr. Chandy to continue in power, Mr. Chennithala alleged that the Chief Minister had shown disrespect to the court by not demanding the resignation of the Minister even in the face of harsh criticism from the judges.
Mr. Chennithala accused the Chief Minister of remaining fearful of the money power of the Transport Minister.
Referring to the clean chit given by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) to Administrative Reforms Committee chairman V.S. Achuthanandan’s son V.A. Arun Kumar in the IHRD case, Mr. Chennithala said the LDF government had weakened the investigating agency in a way facilitating escape routes for its leaders and their kin.
