Nadda takes aim at Kerala govt, Rahul at virtual rally

› We have a saying ‘chor ki daadhi mein tinka’; it means the office of CM is also involved somewhere

JP NADDA, BJP chief, on the Kerala gold smuggling case

NEWDELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda on Sunday launched an attack against the Pinarayi Vijayan government of Kerala, accusing it of corruption and nepotism and messing up data related to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

He also attacked former Congress president and Wayanad MP, Rahul Gandhi, for allegedly holding a secret meeting with the Chinese ambassador during the Doklam military standoff in 2017. The BJP president, who was addressing a virtual rally after an online inauguration of the party’s district office in Kasargod, said the Kerala government needed to come clean on the recent gold smuggling that led to the transfer of a senior bureaucrat.scandal.

The transfer of M Sivasankar, a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who was also a secretary to chief minister Vijayan, came after opposition parties in the state stepped up pressure following the seizure of 30 kg gold from a diplomatic consignment. “What is the relationship between that IT officer and the personal secretary of the chief minister...We can see the heat in CM’s office also. He wrote to Prime Minister saying no stone should remain unturned as far as the investigation is concerned. We have a saying ‘chor ki daadhi mein tinka’, it means the office of CM is also involved somewhere,” the BJP chief.

The BJP leader also criticised the Kerala government for its handling of the Covid-19 crisis, He said the CM had made claims that the state is equipped to cater to over 150,000 people, but when the Vande Bharat flights to bring home stranded Indians from abroad were started, the situation turned out to be different.

Shifting his attack to Rahul Gandhi, he said, the Wayand MP had not disclosed his meeting with the Chinese ambassador during the Doklam stand-off. “These days he is asking questions about China and shows desh prem (love for the country), but the people of India know when the Doklam standoff was on he secretly met the Chinese ambassador and did not tell anyone,” he added.

On Sunday, Gandhi again attacked the government over the June 15 clash, alleging that the Chinese have captured Indian territory. “What happened {was} that China took away the sacred land of Mother India during Modi ji’s tenure?” the former Congress president tweeted on Sunday.

The Kerala government brushed aside the BJP president’s criticism. “The whole world is praising the state’s Covid management system and we have the lowest mortality rate, records speak. In gold smuggling case we don’t have anything to hide. Our CM was first to call for a central agency probe,” said state industry minister E P Jayarajan, considered to be close to CM Pinarayi Vijayan.