The Congress has moved to put the government on the defensive by ratcheting up its agitation against the State law enforcement’s allegedly heavy-handed response to the party’s black flag demonstrations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s motorcade during the recently concluded Navakerala Sadas, the Cabinet’s public outreach programme.
The law enforcement’s purported move to reward officers who gave cover to the Chief Minister’s motorcade appears to have added insult to the Congress’s perceived injury. Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan portrayed the “decision” as a challenge to democracy and a mockery of the Opposition’s agitation.
On Wednesday, a galaxy of top Congress leaders will lay the ground to portray the government as authoritarian and far removed from the travails of the people by observing a “liberation from fascism” day across Kerala. They will also spotlight the acquittal of the suspect in the rape-murder of a child in Idukki and “dismal” crowd management in Sabarimala as prime examples of police apathy.
The Congress will also attempt to hold the government to account for detaining hundreds of Opposition activists on “vague suspicions of violence” and then releasing them without charge after a day in the lock-up.
The party will seek to spotlight the perceived emptiness of accusations against hundreds of “victims of preventive and arbitrary arrests” and blame Mr. Vijayan’s office for the “illegal detention” of Opposition activists.
A video clip of Mr. Vijayan’s security detail jumping out of their car and assaulting Kerala Students Union (KSU) black flag demonstrators detained by the local police in Alappuzha has reignited a debate about police high-handedness. The opposing arguments played out strongly on social and mainstream media.
A buoyed Congress also interpreted a court order tasking the police to book Mr. Vijayan’s security detail for assaulting KSU activists as a moral victory.
A counter to the Congress’s litany of complaints against the government seemed to come from Communist Party of India State Secretary Binoy Viswam.
Mr. Viswam said the Congress in Kerala seemed oblivious to the fascist policies of the Central government and appeared to act as the ideological echo chamber of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the State.
Revenue Minister K. Rajan stated that the Congress had shunned the democratic process and resorted to boycotts instead of creative criticism.
