“For Brutus is an honourable man- this is what Mark Antony said in his speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. I would like to say that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is an honourable man. He is the captain of the ship. However the ship that he steers is out of control due to strong winds and hurricanes. He is not able to control the ship as the problem lies in the captain’s cabin,” said Congress MLA VD Satheesan as he moved the no-confidence motion against the Pinarayi Vijayan government in the Kerala assembly.
In the Shakespearean play, Brutus is a close friend of Julius Caesar but is led to betray him. He's the last person to stab Caesar. Mark Antony, Caesar's ally, delivers his famous 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' speech at Caesar's funeral and sarcastically refers to Brutus as an 'honourable man' as he lays bare the latter's betrayal.
Satheesan, one of the six vice presidents of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, raised a series of allegations against the Left government and even said that the government is under Amit Shah’s control. “A smuggling team has hijacked the Chief Minister’s Office, the government has transformed the Life Mission (a project to build houses for the homeless) into a bribe mission”, VD alleged.
The Opposition- the United Democratic Front - led by the Congress moved the no confidence motion to highlight the flaws of the government. The LDF has 91 seats in the 140-member state Assembly.
“A third grade smuggling ring enters Kerala. They have all plans ready on how to transport gold from Dubai to Kerala and who to give the gold to. All smuggling rings have such plans. But what did this ring do? They took into confidence the Principal Secretary of the Chief Minister and through that they controlled many bureaucrats and ministers. That’s not all, the accused (Swapna Suresh) also got a government-related job through the backdoor, to legitimise herself,” he alleged.
VD Satheesan next targeted KT Jaleel, the Higher Education Minister of Kerala. “Of course, he is also an honorable man of Kerala.” Satheesan questioned why Jaleel was constantly in touch with the UAE consulate over relief kits for the poor, which has nothing to do with his department.
Reiterating the allegations of opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, who had once called the government a consultancy Raj, Satheesan said that ‘consultancy’ has become a weakness for the government, referring to the various consultancies with which the government reached agreements for carrying out certain works.
Satheesan chided that the NIA and Enforcement Directorate officials were frequenting the Secretariat and both bureaucrats and ministers were under the cloud of suspicion. He even alleged that the government had leaked the bidding amount of the Thiruvananthapuram International airport to the Adani group. The government has been facing criticism for hiring the services of law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, in which Gautam Adani’s daughter in law is a partner.
Meanwhile, Chennithala intervened demanding that Speaker Sreeramakrishnan should not chair the House as the Opposition had moved a notice to remove the Speaker over his alleged links with the accused in the gold smuggling case.
The Speaker, however, rejected the demand saying that the notice should be issued 14 days prior to the convening of the Assembly according to the rules.
Congress MLA and former minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that the Chief Minister is surrounded by ‘incarnations’ and that Swapna Suresh (key accused in the smuggling case) was one of them. The Kerala government is sabotaging democracy, Thiruvanchoor said, adding that it is also escaping criticism.
However, the ruling front said that the opposition’s demand is not justifiable politically or morally.
S Sharma of the CPI(M) attacked the opposition saying that the Congress has a soft Hindutva agenda, adding that it was moving the motion at a critical juncture for the Congress party when they cannot even select a president.
“The gold smuggling case is being investigated by a national investigation agency. It has not said that the CMO has any role in the crime. The opposition move is to destabilise the government and shameless politics is being played to damage the Chief Minister. If the opposition has any evidence against the government in the case, they can submit it to the investigation agency. Why don't they do that?” he asked.
He said that it’s because of the soft Hindutva slant of the Congress that its workers are leaving the party and joining the BJP, adding that the Congress has degraded itself to being a B team of the BJP. He asked how an opposition in which the people have lost faith can move a no confidence motion.
Meanwhile the BJP’s lone MLA O Rajagopal led a protest outside the Assembly complex alleging that he had not been given an opportunity to speak.