Southern States - Kerala   

Govt. charge proved hollow: Pinarayi

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM March 11. The CPI(M) State secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, has termed the dawn-to-dusk hartal organised by the Opposition LDF today to press for a judicial inquiry into the February 19 police firing on Adivasis at Muthanga the most peaceful hartal that the State has ever seen.

Mr. Vijayan told reporters at the venue of the Opposition MLAs' indefinite fast in front of the Secretariat here this evening that no major untoward incident had been reported from anywhere in the State and the CBSE and ICSE examinations had passed off peacefully thereby disproving the canards spread by the Government and the UDF leadership about its likely impact.

The CPI(M) leader hoped that the Chief Minister would take the right message from the hartal and not stand on false prestige on the question of ordering a judicial inquiry into the Muthanga incidents.

The Opposition had made it clear that it would ensure absolute peace while observing the hartal, but the UDF leadership kept on insisting that there would be violence. At least, now they should appreciate the sincerity of the Opposition, he said.

Referring to the KPCC leadership's endorsement of the Government stand on the Muthanga incidents, Mr. Vijayan said it was regrettable that the Congress had degenerated into a party which could not perform the corrective function expected of any political party when its leader commits mistakes.

What the Opposition had raised was not a political slogan, but a demand which had been aired by many including the SC/ST Commission. The Government seemed to have a lot to cover up.

Mr. Vijayan warned the Chief Minister not to be under the illusion that he would be able to get away with his stubbornness. The Opposition stir would not end without an outcome and would be strengthened in the days to come. The Opposition did not see the Government's refusal to order a judicial inquiry a matter of mere stubbornness, but as part of a clear agenda, he said.

The RSP State secretary, T. J. Chandrachoodan, also present at the venue of the fast, said the success of the hartal showed that even the people rallied behind the UDF approved of the Opposition demand.

Prof. Chandrachoodan wondered why the UDF constituents, which had views on every other subject, had nothing to say on the atrocities on Adivasis at Muthanga.

He also noted that no hartal in the past had been so incident-free.

Prof. Chandrachoodan took strong exception to the Government's attempt to muzzle the media and said the visual media was being targeted because it brought to the people live coverage of the way tribals were brutalised by the police at Muthanga.

Individual reporters were being targeted and a person like the KPCC president, K. Muraleedharan, had gone to the ridiculous extent of saying that the Government was not taking a second look at the Asianet scribe's case because the channel management had not taken up the matter with it, the RSP secretary pointed out.

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