Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday told the Assembly that he was ready to hold talks to put an end to violence in Kannur. Mr Vijayan was responding to a suggestion by former chief minister Oommen Chandy while discussing the notice for an adjournment motion in the Assembly moved by K.C. Joseph. Mr Chandy said that the Chief Minister wanted discussions to take place at the local level first and in case there was a need for a state level discussion he was ready to convene the same.
Later, the Opposition walked out as Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan denied the motion in wake of the Chief Minister’s reply. The Opposition trooped into the Well of House alleging that the ruling front disrupted the speech of Mr Joseph who moved the motion disrupting the Assembly for some time. The Speaker gave a ruling asking the Opposition not to threaten the chair. Earlier, while replying to the motion, the Chief Minister said that the BJP and RSS were not cooperating with the attempt to restore peace.
“Police is taking an impartial stand against the violence. The issues can be resolved only if the persons concerned decide that they would not kill in the future,” Mr Vijayan said. People of Kannur are neither scared nor anxious. The RSS is spreading such false rumours, Mr Vijayan added. Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala while speaking on the occasion said that the move to shift Jacob Thomas from the post was dubious. He also reminded that though Mr Thomas was a good officer he did not have the history of remaining in the same post for more than six months, Mr Chennithala said.
Meanwhile, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan said that it was unfortunate that the Chief Minister used the Assembly to tarnish the image of the RSS and whitewash the CPM. He lamented that Kannur is not only seeing political violence between the CPM and the RSS, but other political parties like Congress, Muslim League and CPI are also no different. Mr Kummanam added that ever since the LDF government came to power more than 250 cases of political violence has happened with 80 per cent of them belonging to CPM. “In Pinarayi village alone, 31 houses were targeted by the CPM. Recently, three BJP supporters were killed and more than 40 have been injured,” said Mr Kummanam.
