The past five-year stint of the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre and the 1,000-day stint of the Left Democratic Front government in the State has destroyed peace here, former KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran has said.
He was inaugurating the Thiruvananthapuram Assembly constituency election convention of UDF candidate Shashi Tharoor here on Wednesday.
“The main aim of this election should be to bring back peace in the State and across the country. For that, the existing governments have to be defeated. The BJP and the CPI(M) are competing with each other in killing the workers of the rival parties,” he said.
Liqour policy
Mr. Sudheeran, who spent a considerable amount of time speaking on the after-effects of the overturning of the liquor ban, accused the LDF government of being hand in glove with the liquor and drug mafia.
“So many murders have been committed in the recent days by those under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The LDF government had claimed that the UDF’s policy of closing down bars has led to the widespread usage of drugs. Now bars are open in every corner of the State, but the usage of drugs have only increased,” he said.
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders of politicising the Pulwama attacks, he said that Rahul Gandhi had set a model for everyone else by refusing to talk politics in the week after the attacks. Mr. Sudheeran said that the electoral picture of the State has changed drastically with the arrival of K. Muraleedharan as a candidate in Vadakara.
On ‘achhe din’
Mr. Tharoor said that the past five years of the Modi government has been disastrous for the country, with record levels of joblessness leaving large number of youth in a hopeless situation.
“How can Modi approach the public for a second term? Have any of you got ‘achhe din’ in the past five years? If not, it is time to bring back the Congress,” he said.
