The undue enthusiasm Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government has been showing for defending Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s former gunman Salim Raj, suspended from service recently over his links with the perpetrators of the infamous solar scam in which Chandy is allegedly involved, in the High Court has caused sharp divisions in the State Congress.
Senior Congress leader VM Sudheeran, known to be a group-neutral party functionary, on Wednesday expressed his sharp resentment over this publicly by saying, “In my opinion, certain things happening in this regard are not proper.” However, he said he did not want to discuss such things in public as the party was already facing a crisis.
“The situation (of the party) is very bad. Therefore I don’t want to discuss such things in public. I have conveyed my protests and concerns in this regard to the Congress leadership in the State. I have also taken up such things with responsible people in other levels of the party,” Sudheeran told mediapersons in Kollam.
The Congress High Command had last week called Sudheeran to Delhi where he had met party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi to discuss the Kerala party affairs. After the meetings with the two leaders and others, Sudheeran had said that he had explained to them the difficult situation the Kerala party was going through.
The way Advocate General KP Dandapani has been defending Salim Raj, who is said to be wielding huge influence over CMChandy and his family despite being just a police official under suspension, has caused serious dissent in the Congress and among the constituents of the ruling UDF.
When a case relating to a property dispute, in which Salim Raj had allegedly cheated some persons including some of his relatives, had come up in the High Court August 7, the Advocate General had surprised the entire State by appearing in the court himself with an appeal challenging an order to the police to find the phone-call details of Chandy’s former gunman.
A Division bench of the court had on that day stayed the order passed by a single-judge bench. However, when a petition came up in the court on Tuesday seeking orders to implead the mobile service providers for Salim Raj in a property dispute case, the AG appeared again arguing against this vehemently.
“Normally, the AG does not get time to appear in the court even in cases that are crucial to the Government. But here he is, appearing in a simple property dispute case to argue for a simple policeman under suspension. Those who are making the AG do this should know that Keralites are smart enough to guess what is happening,” said a senior Congress leader praying anonymity.
Chandy is accused of appointing Salim Raj as his gunman after he became Chief Minister by deliberately neglecting the warnings issued by the police’s Intelligence wing for which it had cited the history of several cases against him. Congress leaders are now alleging that Chandy is misusing his authority and office to protect his ex-gunman.
The Chief Minister is also charged with protecting Salim Raj in the solar scam by disallowing the police to take action against him. The police had arrested Chandy’s former personal assistant Tenny Joppen for his links with con woman Saritha S Nair, scam perpetrator, but they have not so far moved against Salim Raj who perhaps had stronger links with her than Joppen.
Meanwhile, former State Congress president K Muraleedharan MlA on Wednesday demanded discussions in the party and the UDF for fixing the terms of reference of the judicial probe Chandy had on August 3 announced into the solar scam amidst the Opposition demand for inclusion of the CM’s office under its purview.
Muraleedharan, a strong critic of Chandy in the party, called for immediate cessation of confrontations among the constituents of the UDF. He also asked the Congress leadership to immediately convene a meeting of the committee constituted for ensuring effective coordination between the party and the Government it was leading.