The debate in Kerala Assembly polls is now revolving around Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment made last Sunday comparing the infant mortality rate in Kerala tribal regions to that of Somalia. While the Kerala Chief Minister threatened to explore legal action against Modi for his "humiliating remarks" for Keralaiits, on Thursday a war of word also erupted between him and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on the claims of who paid the expenses for evacuated Indians from libya.
PM had on Wednesday said his Government has evacuated the families from libya and that the Centre was committed to work for welfare of Indians living abroad. "Our Government has saved six families and evacuated 29 people. The Indian Government is committed to working for people who go abroad to work, we have always tried to help them. It gives me immense pleasure and happiness to tell you that they are coming back and will be united with their families soon," Modi had said. Out of these 29 Indians evacuated from libya, 16 are from Kerala.
However, Chandy contradicted PM saying the Kerala Government paid for these 16 people from the state. Responding to Chandy's claim Swaraj posted on Twitter: "Mr.Chandy - You said 'Kerala paid for 29 Indians evacuated from libya… We evacuated thousands of Indians from Kerala from Iraq, libya and Yemen. Who paid for themIJ," the minister said. "Mr.Chandy - You started this debate - as to Who paid IJ Not me. We always did this because this is our pious duty towards our citizens," she said in another tweet.
Clarifying to Swaraj's tweets, Chandy said: "Sushma Swaraj paid for the earlier evacuations. This time we are paying for their travel."
Meanwhile, reiterating that Modi had humiliated the entire Keralites with his comment on the State which stood first among the Indian states in Human Development Index, Chandy also said he was thinking of complaining to the Election Commission. But the BJP retorted saying that the CM was trying to divert the people's attention.
"The Prime Minister had made the statement on the basis of media reports when there were official documents he could look at. Nobody expects such an approach from the Prime Minister. Modi should have remembered that he was not just a BJP leader but also the Prime Minister of the country. Instead of criticizing politically, he leveled baseless allegations," Chandy said.
Kerala's Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan also attacked Modi for his remark saying that the PM, who was "turning entire India into Somalia", had no right to criticise Kerala. The people would see through his promise to turn Kerala into heaven when he was doing nothing to solve the problems caused by drought across the country, he added.
However, the BJP tried to project the controversy over the Prime Minister's remark as an effort of the two main fronts - Congress-led UDF and CPI(M)-led lDF - to shift the focus of the poll campaign from issues like corruption, lack of development and political immorality. According to Kerala BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan, Chandy was attacking Modi for things he had not said.