THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Information Minister K.C. Joseph on Monday slammed Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Rajiv Pratap Rudy for making baseless statements on the controversy over unveiling the statue of R. Sankar in Kollam on Tuesday.
Mr Joseph said both the union ministers had quoted a letter written by the state protocol to the OSD PMO that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had expressed his inability to take part in the function to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said the letter was written by the state protocol officer on December 12 after the protocol division of the union government sought to know whether the chief minister was attending the function.
Mr Joseph said many developments had taken place before the state protocol officer wrote to the OSD PMO. On December 12, the chief minister got a call from SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan requesting him not to take part in the function since certain quarters were against his participation.
“Soon the chief minister got in touch with OSD PMO and informed them that he would not be able to attend the function in view of the stand taken by the organisers. But to avoid embarrassment to the prime minister and to adhere to propriety in such matters, the official communication from the chief minister did not mention the reason for staying away,” he said.
The chief minister’s office had released the statement to the media at 1 p.m. after Mr Chandy conveyed his inability to the PMO OSD.
“We didn’t mention the exact reason for excluding the chief minister even in the press statement to avoid embarrassment to the SNDP leader and the PMO,” he said.
Mr Joseph asked if Mr Vellapally knew from the beginning that it was a private function, why did he invite Mr Chandy and told him to preside over the event. Moreover, the plaque also contained his name. “We believe the BJP national leadership might have intervened and asked Vellapally to drop the chief minister,” he said.
The chief minister would take up the issue with the prime minister at the meeting scheduled to take place at the Air Force technical area before the latter's departure on Tuesday, he said.
PMO clarifies
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) clarified that it had given no instruction to the organisers to keep the chief minister off the function.
"It is the organisers of the function who decide on the invitees and the PMO is only concerned about the seating arrangements and so on," the PMO said.
PM in Kerala to execute RSS agenda: Kodiyeri
CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan alleged that Mr Modi’s visit to Kerala itself was to take part in an RSS propaganda that has Vellapally as its face.
“The RSS first tried hijacking Congress leader Sardar Vallabhai Patel and make him their man. In Kerala now they are trying hard to hijack former Congress chief minister R. Sankar,” Mr Balakrishnan said on the sidelines of a party function.
He added that communalism was evident in Mr Vellapally’s act of avoiding the chief minister from the function.
“They avoided the CM because he is Chandy and the local MLA because he is A.A. Aziz. On the other hand they are happy to invite MLA Gurudasan and MP N.K. Premachandran. Their plan is to sideline everyone based on religion,” alleged Mr Balakrishnan.
