The Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the Congress met today after a lull and decided to go hammer and tongs against the LDF government and to expose its shortcomings in the fight against Covid-19.
State Congress president Mullappally Ramachandran, while delivering the inaugural address through video conferencing from State Congress headquarters ‘Indira Bhavan’, said that even as the Congress was extending support to the actions of the government in the fight against Covid-19 from Day One onwards, the CPI (M) and Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was time and again ridiculing Congress and its leaders from all available platforms.
Mullappally lamented that the CPI (M) and the Pinarayi Vijayan government had not reciprocated the gesture shown by the Congress. He went on to say that the Left government had entered into a politics of vendetta and this was evident in the personalized attack against Congress leaders as well as Muslim Leauge leader K M Shaji. Mullappaly added that the grass root party workers were in the forefront of all the service activities across the state and said that the party workers had distributed more than 7 lakh food kits to the needy.
Kodikunnil Suresh and K Muraleedharan came out strongly against some young MLAs attempting to take credit for the collective effort of the party in the fight against Covid-19. Kodikkunnil Suresh said that there was a concerted effort from certain quarters to appropriate the credit for the party’s fight against Covid-19 to some MLAs. He said that the KPCC had made all efforts for arrangement of food and other necessities to those facing difficulties and, portraying that as the achievement of certain MLAs was highly deplorable. He also lashed out against some MLAs and party leaders trying to gain traction at the expense of the party.
K Muraleedharan seconded Kodikkunnil and said that the attention-mongers are not the foot soldiers and planting news articles (alluding to a report in Malayala Manorama the other day) and taking credit for a collective deed is not the right thing to do for a party worker. He said that the Congress party had worked as a well-oiled machinery across the state. Muraleedharan lashed out against certain MLAs for their penchant to be in the limelight by using the circuitous way of media publicity.
P J Kurien, while speaking through video conferencing, said that the CPI (M) has resorted to petty tactics to tarnish Congress leaders and cited the example of cyber bullying against senior leader and party Working Committee member AK Antony. The CPI (M) cyber warriors targeted Antony over his statement that the Travancore rulers and missionaries had done a commendable service to develop the public health system of the state. Kurien also called upon the party leadership to be ready for the impending local body elections and to activate the party booth level committees at the grassroot level.
P C Vishnunath also charged the CPI (M) of cyber bullying of A K Antony and other Congress leaders. He said that the Congress party has performed the role of the opposition commendably during the Covid-19 crisis and said that the party has to be strengthened at the grassroots. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala spoke how the opposition is only doing its duty and added that the charges in the Sprinkler deal has rattled the Chief Minister. He said that the Congress is acting as a responsible opposition and that the party has extended all moral and physical support to the government in this time of the pandemic attack.
AICC General Secretary in-charge of the Organization, KC Venugopal, said that the party machinery has worked as a single unit after the call from AICC president Sonia Gandhi to lend service and support to the people suffering due to Covid-19. Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the state government has erred in several counts in the measures taken in the fight against the pandemic. He referred to the unfortunate incidents at the border check posts when people were coming from other states.
Leaders in unison called upon the party president to immediately revamp the District Congress Committees whose presidents who have been elected as MPs and MLAs. Ernakulam, Thrissur, Wayanad and Palakkad DCCs have to be revamped following the presidents of these committees getting elected as people’s representatives. It was also decided that K V Thomas will head the operations of the party’s mouthpiece, Veekshanam.
Mullappally Ramachandran, K C Venugopal, Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala, M M Hassan and K Muraleedharan attended the PAC meeting from the KPCC headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram while the rest of the members attended through video conferencing.
