Thiruvananthapuram: Hours after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday thanked visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the help to the state in sanctioning the Vande Bharat train and other developments, the ruling CPI-M’s state Secretary M.V. Govindan termed the PM a “bluffer”.
“There is nothing new in what Modi said and he has bluffed when he said development is lacking in Kerala because in the NITI Aayog ratings Kerala is number one. He spoke like an ordinary BJP/RSS worker, which is devoid of facts. The long-promised railway coach factory (Palakkad) and an AIIMS is still not happened in Kerala,” Govindan told the media here.
His statements came an hour after Modi left Kerala, concluding his two day visit to the state.
At Kochi on Monday, Modi, addressing a public meeting of mostly youth, had slammed the state’s traditional rival fronts for not addressing developmental issues and came down heavily on the CPI-M-led government, claiming that it are only interested in seeing the party grow at the expense of the growth of the state.
As Modi also referred to gold smuggling case, Govindan said that figures clearly show that the maximum gold smuggling takes place in Gujarat.
“With regards to the gold smuggling case, despite the Centre having all the agencies under its hand, why is that they are still unable to trace the origin from where the gold comes and who all are the recipients here. Also, on one hand, they are attaching properties of those who engage in such acts, the central agencies, in an affidavit, allowed release of the property of (prime accused) Swapna Suresh,” he said.
Another “bluff” of Modi that Govindan tagged was on the giant strides that the BJP has made in the Northeast and Goa, especially in states having a considerable Christian population.
“In the Northeast, the BJP is just only a small player and is riding piggy-back riding on parties there. In Goa they purchased Congress legislators. If you look this is the case in Maharashtra when they split the Shiv Sena. In Madhya Pradesh also Congress legislators were purchased. In Uttar Pradesh, the total tally of the BJP fell down drastically. Hence it’s only in Gujarat where the BJP has above 50 per cent votes and it’s because they have a direct fight with a weak Congress party. So the writing on the wall is clear that if the opposition unite, it will be the end of BJP and for that things are moving forward,” Govindan said.
He also pointed out that Modi was able to walk down the streets at Kochi freely “because this can happen in Kerala only and we are happy for it”.
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