Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy has said that the treatment meted out to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by the Madhya Pradesh authorities is an affront to Kerala.
In a statement here on Sunday, Mr. Chandy said instead of taking action against aggressors and those who had breached the law, the Madhya Pradesh government had chose to block the Chief Minister from attending the meeting. “What happened in Bhopal was a gross violation of the general decency that has to be maintained in State to State relations under a federal structure,” he said.
Dubbing the incident as unfortunate and objectionable, Mr. Chandy said the experience in Bhopal should not have happened to a Chief Minister. That such a incident had taken place was not a shame to Kerala but it was a disgrace to Madhya Pradesh and its Chief Minister, Mr. Chandy said.
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It was natural in a democracy to have differences of opinion on political matters. However, it was not proper to restrict the movement of the Chief Minister of one State by another State government, he said.
Mr. Chandy’s statement referred to the failure of the Madhya Pradesh government to provide protection to Mr. Vijayan who was on his way to participate in a public meeting in Bhopal.