NCP leader’s complaint against Cong vice-chief
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was on Tuesday described as a joker for his travel on roof-top on a police vehicle during a Youth Congress rally in Kerala on Monday even as a local leader of the NCP, Congress’s ally in the Centre, filed a complaint against him for violating provisions of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Act and Police Act.
“Rahul has violated rules by travelling on the roof of a police vehicle. He was acting like a joker… Not just acting… He is indeed a joker. Is it such a joker that the Congress is promising the country as its Prime Ministerial candidateIJ There should be legal action against this politician who acts like a person with no intelligence,” said Kerala CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
lawyer Mujeeb Rahman, a local NCP leader, lodged a complaint with the Nooranad police station in Alappuzha district, under the limits of which Rahul had travelled on the jeep-roof, demanding registration of a case against him for violating provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act and Police Act. However, no case had been initiated till late Tuesday evening.
As he was participating in the Yuva Kerala Yatra, a march held by the Kerala Youth Congress, at Nooranad on Monday, Rahul climbed on the roof of the police vehicle accompanying him as the rush of activists became uncontrollable. He also travelled on the vehicle roof for some distance, waving his hands and greeting the Youth Congress workers around the jeep.
“Is there a special law for Rahul which allows him to do vehicle-roof travellingIJ It is clear that the State Home Minister (Ramesh Chennithala, also Kerala’s Congress president) had silently allowed Rahul to do this,” Pinarayi said in Thiruvananthapuram, adding that the incident became all the more serious as Rahul had used this jeep roof-top travel for political programme.
Mujeeb Rahman, a lawyer at a court in Mavelikkara, Alappuzha, said in his complaint against Rahul and State Youth Congress president Dean Kuriakose, who also travelled on the jeep-roof, pointed out that travelling on the roof of a running vehicle was illegal as per Section 123 of the Kerala Police Act.
The lawyer also said that Rahul and Dean had used the police vehicle for a political programme which was illegal in more ways than one as per rules. He said he would be filing a petition against Rahul in the Mavelikkara court on Wednesday.
Congress leaders in Kerala reacted furiously to Pinarayi’s remarks against Rahul Gandhi. “It is obvious that the CPI(M) has gone mad seeing the massive support Rahul’s programme had got at Nooranad,” said Chennithala while Congress leader Joseph Vazhakkan termed Pinarayi’s criticisms as absurd and cheap.
“There is nothing unusual about what Rahul did. A leader like Pinarayi shouldn’t have made a big issue out of this,” said Union Minister KV Thomas. “Rahul had no time to see whether it was a police vehicle or not when he had to climb atop its roof as the crowds of activists swelled,” was the justification Dean Kuriakose offered.
“Instead of admitting that Rahul had committed a mistake, the Congress and its youth wing are trying to justify an illegal act. Is this the model Rahul and the Congress are proposing to offer to the politicians and the society of this countryIJ” asked TM Thomas Isaac, former FM and a central committee member of the CPI(M).
Rahul’s joining the Yuva Kerala Yatra was quite dramatic as he had made public the plan to participate in it just 48 hours in advance. He had landed at the Kochi airport at noon Monday and driven straight to Nooranad where he joined the Yatra and returned to Kochi after walking for about half a kilometre with the activists.