Minister for External Affairs S Jayashankar earned the wrath of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for the former’s statement on Monday about the role of the UAE Consulate General at Thiruvananthapuram in the infamous Gold Smuggling Scam.
While speaking to media on Monday, the External Affairs Minister said that the Centre was aware of the gold smuggling scam and related incidents. “Since it is sub-judice to speak about it, I would not speak about it.
Whatever happened at the Consulate General office should not have happened,” said Dr Jayashankar.
Chief Minister Vijayan who took umbrage over the statements made by Dr Jayashankar, told the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that the Minister should focus on external affairs instead of dabbling in affairs of Kerala. “We all know why he has come to Kerala.
This is part of the BJP’s 2024 election agenda. The external affairs minister has no role to play in the State,” said Vijayan while responding to a calling attention motion by the Leader of the Opposition V D Satheeshan.
The Chief Minister said that Minister Jayashankar’s visit was reportedly to oversee the progress of a fly-over in the National Highway connecting Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam.