Rudy misled House: CM Oommen Chandy

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has blamed Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Union minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy for misleading Parliament and accused BJP of pressurising SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan to withdraw the invite extended him to attend the Sankar memorial function in Kollam on Tuesday.

In the letter which he handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Chandy said the ministers had not carded to verify facts either with him or his office. It was “unfortunate” that Mr Rudy stated in reply to the notice for adjournment motion that “I kept away from the statue unveiling owing to (personal) inconvenience”.

Mr Chandy told a TV channel on Wednesday that he was convinced that Vellapally Natesan had no role in the developments and he was said about them.

In the letter, Mr Chandy lamented the failure of Prime Minister’s Office to avoid controversies related to the statue unveiling. He said all political parties, except BJP, and media had described his exclusion from the function as an insult to the people of Kerala.

“Usually I keep away from controversies, and it is surprising that PMO hasn't intervened to avoid controversies. I wish to k-now what would have been your reaction if such an in-cident happened in Guj-arat while you were the Chief Minister,” he said.

“I don’t know why the organisers had withdrawn the invitation extended to me in which I am obliged to attend as chief minister and it is the first public programme of the Prime Minister on his first visit to Kerala.

Later the organisers said that it is a private function and they had the right to invite or not to invite. I fully agree with that. But after inviting me and including my name in the notice and plaque of the programme, Vellappally Natesan was forced to withdraw the invitation due to unknown reasons,” he said.

“I was invited for the unveiling ceremony of the statue of R.Sanker by Vellapally Natesan, chief organiser of the function and General Secretary of SNDP Yogam and I readily agreed and accepted the invitation. Notice and plaque for the function were prepared showing the meeting will be presided over by me,” he said. Mr Chandy said that on December 11 evening Vellappally informed him through Excise Minister K.Babu that intelligence agencies had warned of protest in the meeting if he attended the function. “I verified with the State Police intelligence and they were not aware of any such report from any intelligence agency,” he said.

“Again on December 12 Vellappally Natesan conveyed to me to keep away from the function and I had no option other than to abide by his request. When PMO contacted me over phone, I had conveyed this personally. On December 12 by 1 pm my office issued a press release showing that I will not be attending the Kollam programme as requested by organisers.

“In the evening, by 5 pm, in reply to repeated queries from PMO, our State Protocol informed PMO that I will not be attending the Kollam programme. It had never said that my absence is due to my inconvenience as said by Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Parliament,” the letter said.

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