Ramesh Chennithala, Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly who is also a chief ministerial aspirant, lambasted former Congress president Rahul Gandhi whose comments about the Covid-19 situation in the State is being seen as an approval of the works done by the Pinarayi Vijayan Government.
Rahul Gandhi, who was on a three-day visit to Wayanad from where he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019, described the comments made by union health minister Harsh Vardhan was unfortunate. He also alleged that the BJP Government as the Centre was using the investigating agencies like the NIA and ED for political vendetta. “I was also a victim of this,” he had told journalists at Kalpetta.
Chennithala, who has been leading a series of demonstrations against the CPI(M) government demanding the resignation of the ministers involved in the gold smuggling scam, was taken aback when the former Congress President chose to be cautious and stayed away from criticising the State government. Rahul Gandhi used the meeting with the media to criticise the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre which the former said “goofed up” in tackling the Covid-19 issue and the burning problems faced by the country.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Chennithala said it was not proper on the part of Rahul Gandhi to comment about the situation in Kerala as the latter visits the State rarely. “There are competent people here in the State to comment about the issues faced by Kerala,” he said.
M M Mani, Kerala’s minister for power, said the words of Chennithala matched that of the Sangh Parivar. “His comments about Rahul Gandhi reflect the views of Sangh Parivar as he cannot cover it up,” said Mani.