Senior Congress leader K. Muraleedharan on Tuesday made disparaging remarks against Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran.
Referring to the alleged protocol violation on the part of the Mayor during the recent visit of President Ram Nath Kovind to Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Muraleedharan said the Mayor was an ‘ignoramus’.
“When you honk the horn of your vehicle and try to force your way into the motorcade of the President or Prime Minister, generally, it is responded with gunshots. Isn’t there anyone in the CPI(M) to advise her on these things?” Mr. Muraleedharan asked while inaugurating the founding day of the Congress at the DCC office here on Tuesday.
Mr. Muraleedharan was booked early this year on charges of making misogynistic remarks against Ms. Rajendran.
He laughed at the State government’s attempts to implement the SilverLine railway project, asking how would the government, which was unable to supply water in the washroom for the President, would carry out such a project.
He said only the Congress would be able to lead a group of parties believing in democracy against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the BJP worked towards the common goal of making India Congress-free.
Mr. Muraleedharan equated the alleged anti-Dalit women actions of Sangh Parivar organisations in BJP-ruled States with the alleged ill-treatment meted out to the marginalised in Kerala. The effort to forcibly delineate land for the SilverLine was a case in point, he said.
DCC president Mohammed Shiyas presided over the meeting.
