Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has hit out at the southern state’s ruling party CPM, and condemned the CPI(M)-affiliated Students Federation of India (SFI) activists for allegedly hitting Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s car.
Shashi Tharoor took to microblogging site X, to dub the Kerala police under CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s governance as “agents of lawlessness” and claimed that they have been complicit in the ruling party’s “worst excesses”.
Shashi Tharoor said, “Disgraceful behaviour by SFI goons in blocking @KeralaGovernor Shri ArifMohdKhan Sahib’s car yesterday and assaulting his vehicle. His fury is entirely understandable.”
“The police under Communist rule have been agents of lawlessness, complicit in the ruling party’s worst excesses. They allowed an assault on the Governor while allowing the manhandling of peaceful student demonstrators against the CM. Shameful,” he added.
Tharoor on Tuesday, told news agency ANI, “Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says,”This is unacceptable because this not how you pursue political differences…This raises serious questions as to what the police were doing?”
A visibly furious Khan got out of his car and told the media that it was Vijayan who ‘conspired’ to send people to hurt him physically.
While Shahshi Tharoor‘s tweet is a comment on the ongoing conflict between Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, the tweet also casts aspersions on the opposition INDIA bloc.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) also known as Left Front (Kerala) is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state. Though the Congress is opposed to the LDF in Kerala, it has an understanding with Left parties for the Lok Sabha polls as part of the INDIA bloc.
Fissures among INDIA bloc members on state level has been evident for quite sometime now.
After the Congress’ defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Pinarayi Vijayan had criticised the party and said that it had lost because of “greed and a lust for power”.
Congress leader V D Satheesan had lashed out at the chief minister and said that Vijayan appeared happier over the party’s loss than BJP Kerala chief K Surendran.
Despite its victory in Telangana, Congress’ defeat in the three Hindi heartland states has made it the target of jibes from several INDIA allies as well, including the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
Seat-sharing is expected to be on the agenda for the next meeting of the alliance, which will be held on 19 December.
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Published: 12 Dec 2023, 06:19 PM IST