CPI(M)'s Kerala State committee member MV Jayarajan, who had gone to jail three years back for describing certain judges as nincompoops, on Wednesday called Congress Chief Minister an "extreme stinker" but expressed regrets later. Jayarajan belongs to Kerala CPI(M)'s powerful Kannur lobby led by State party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
"You (the audience) may not like me if I say that Oommen Chandy is the stinker Chief Minister Kerala has ever seen. He is not just some stinker but he is an extreme stinker. I am ready to go to jail for any term in the name of this statement," Jayarajan said at a programme in Uduma in Kasaragod district.
"Many Chief Ministers have ruled in Kerala in the past five-and-a-half decades after the State's formation… But there has been no Chief Minister as useless and as anti-people as Chandy. Even blackleg Chief Minister K Karunakaran, who had once been criticized and humiliated, had some decency which Chandy does not have," Jayarajan said.
The Congress of Kerala protested sharply against Jayarajan's attack on Chandy. State Congress president VM Sudheeran said, "Jayarajan should retract his words and apologise to the people of Kerala and the Chief Minister. He has used words which no public worker should ever use," Sudheeran said.
May be because of these pressures or due to the reported advices from his own party bosses, Jayarajan later expressed regret at his statement. 'I had made those comments out of good intentions. I didn't mean to offend the Chief Minister personally. I was just mentioning the flaws in his governance. However, I regret if he has taken it the other way," Jayarajan said.
Chandy himself refused to respond to Jayarajan's remarks against him. "I didn't know of anything like that," was his only response when newsmen reminded him during a Press conference in Thiruvananthapuram about the comments Jayarajan had made. The Chief Minister parried all the subsequent queries in this regard.
Jayarajan had triggered a controversy in 2010-2011 by using vile remarks against the judges who had banned meetings and other programmes in public places and roads. "Some nincompoops sitting in judges' chairs are now acting as law-makers. When court verdicts go against public will, people won't attach even the "value of grass" to them," he had said in June, 2010.
In the contempt of court case related to this, the Kerala High Court sentenced him to six months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs 2,000. He was put in jail on November 8, 2011 but was released eight days later after the Supreme Court, acting on an appeal, cancelled the High Court sentence.
leaders of the CPI(M)'s Kannur lobby are not known for the morality they keep in their public speeches. Pinarayi himself had triggered a controversy during the last lok Sabha election campaign by referring to NK Premachandran of the RSP, candidate of the Congress-led UDF, as an "extreme stinker". Despite the protests, Pinarayi had refused to express regret.
Pinarayi had also invited the wrath of Kerala's Catholic Church in 2007 after he termed Bishop Mar Paul Chittilappilly of the Thamarassery diocese as "a disgusting creature" over his claim that party MlA Mathai Chacko had passed away after receiving the anointment of the sick as per Church custom. However, the Bishop said six years later that he had forgiven Pinarayi.