THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP leader K. Surendran has questioned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's public exhortation to support the national strike called by trade unions on September 2. "Isn't it hypocritical to take the moral high ground by asking government employees to be in office and then in the same breath ask them to take part in a 24-hour strike," Surendran told reporters on Sunday.
The BJP leader was referring to a post on Pinarayi Vijayan's facebook page that seeks public support for the September 2 strike. "The CPM Central Committee is organising an online awareness campaign before the national strike on September 2," Vijayan says in his post. And then he seeks public support on both Facebook and Twitter. Surendran said a Chief Minister openly asking people to refrain from work was unconstitutional.
However, a top CPM leader close to the Chief Minister said that certain nuances were lost on Surendran. "The Chief Minister has only asked people to express solidarity on twitter and FB, and not to quit work on the day," the leader said. "The CM has left that to the conscience of the individual. If he had wanted people not to work, he would have said so," the leader added. The leader also reminded that the Chief Minister had even stated that Technopark employees would be kept out of strike.
