Unable to face the questions and criticisms leveled by a furious Opposition over the infamous solar scam in which Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was allegedly involved, the Congress-led UDF Government of Kerala virtually ran away from the State Assembly on Tuesday with the Speaker adjourning the House sine die in the name of noisy Opposition protests.
Indicating that Kerala would now fall into the grip of agitations, the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF called for a dawn-to-dusk State-wide hartal on Wednesday as part of its stirs to force Chandy to resign over the scam and in protest against Tuesday’s police action against protesters, including the use of stun grenades against Opposition MlAs, in Thiruvananthapuram.
Within hours of expressing his willingness resign at an emergency UDF meeting, Chandy firmly ruled out his resignation in the Assembly. The Opposition accused him of lying to the people and the Assembly after he said no CCTV recording was available on his office where he had met a ‘victim’ of the solar scam perpetrators allegedly along with con woman Saritha S Nair.
At the emergency meeting held at his official residence in the wee hours of Tuesday after the scam victim’s disclosures, his Cabinet colleagues and leaders of Congress and UDF decided that there was no need for him to resign. On Tuesday, Defence Minister AK Antony asserted in Kochi that there would be no change of rule in Kerala.
While replying to the notice for an adjournment motion relating to the solar scam, Chandy admitted that he had met Sreedharan Nair, who had lost Rs40 lakh in a deal with the scam perpetrators, on July 9, 2012. The Chief Minister had so far refused to give the exact date of this meeting. However, he said he was not sure whether Saritha Nair was there during the meeting.
When the Opposition wanted him to produce the CCTV recording of his office affairs for the particular date for confirmation, he said his office was on live web-casting and that this was not being recorded. Following this, the Opposition wanted to see the records of mobile tower locations of Saritha on that particular day but Chandy refused to give a direct reply.
It was apparent the CM’s claim that there was no recording of the CCTV or webcam coverage of his office was not true. Earlier, the CM’s office itself had provided the media with clippings of his office interiors after a mentally disturbed person had barged into Chandy’s room and sat on his chair.
Following the Chief Minister’s statement, the Speaker refused leave for the adjournment motion irking the already enraged Opposition further. The Opposition MlAs trooped into the Well of the House with noisy protests giving the excuse for Chandy to move a resolution to adjourn the House sine die. The Speaker rushed through the proceedings and announced adjournment.
The Monsoon Session of the Assembly, which was to end normally on July 18, had resumed on Monday after a 14-day break following unruly scenes over the same issue. “The Government is running away from the people. The Opposition has proved that Chandy is a culprit in the scam. It is now up to the people to take up this issue,” said Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan.
On Monday, Sreedharan Nair had disclosed through a TV channel that he had given Rs40 lakh to Saritha Nair, co-owner of a fraudulent solar power company, for installing a 3-MW plant after getting personal assurance from Chandy at a meeting in his office along with the con woman on July 9, 2012. “The CM had given me every assurance I had wanted,” he said.
Nair had also given a statement at a Pathanamthitta court under Section 164 in support of his petition against the perpetrators of the scam, in which he had said the same thing. However, Chandy claimed that Nair had met him on two occasions and both meetings concerned affairs relating to a metal crusher owners’ association of which he was an office-bearer.