Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, as he had promised to the parents of the two arrested Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists from Kozhikode in November last year, and with the case now being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Tuesday raised the arrest to nail Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who again failed to explain the exact reason for the arrests.
The two students of law and journalism, Alan Suhaib and Thaha Fazal, both CPI(M) workers, were arrested in November from their hometown in Kozhikode, after the police recovered Maoist leaflets that condemned the government's action in Jammu & Kashmir.
Seeking leave for an adjournment motion on the floor of the Kerala Assembly, it was deputy leader of the opposition MK Muneer who first went hard at Pinarayi and pointed out that since their arrest, the CM has failed to give the exact reason for their arrests and rules permit for the state government to take back the case by seeking the permission of the Centre.
"There have been a lot of contradictions as CPI(M) party general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that they will seek all legal options to help them and Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan first said they continue to be your party members, but then hastily changed his position after your top state leader MV Govindan said the youths are not CPI(M) members. Please let us know what wrong have they done, merely possessing literature is not a crime. You come to my house, I have books on Communism and also on RSS, does it mean I am either a Communist or an RSS," asked Muneer.
Replying to it, Pinarayi said the case was taken over by the NIA according to rules that were framed when P Chidamabaram was the Home Minister and do you think I will touch the feet of Amit Shah.
"The police here registered charges under UAPA and the state government's role, should such charges continue, comes after a committee submits its report, but before that the NIA took over the case. All similar cases like MISA, POTA, UAPA were all framed by the Congress and it was done without analysing if it will be misused. In Kerala itself, a few of our leaders have been targeted using these laws. We all know that to oppose us, you support Maoists and any wrongs should be identified and corrected and it should not be supported," hit back Pinarayi.
Then came the turn of Chennithala who said that he along with Muneer had visited the homes of the two youths and all are baffled that they have no clue on what they did wrong.
"If you can touch the feet of Kerala Governor, then what prevents you from doing the same to Shah. In fact you did that also, when you were in Delhi, the last time. In my tenure as Home Minister, we also registered cases sunder UAPA, but everything was cleanly done. However in this case, so many months have passed and you still are not able to say what wrong they did and even your own ally- the CPI top leader Prakash Babu has compared you to the UP Chief Minister Yogi. All we would like to know is what crime did these two youths do,” asked Chennithala.
Later, Chennithala led the entire opposition out of the house to protest the denial of having a discussion on this topic.