BJP State president K. Surendran has said that his party will intensify its agitation against the State government in the wake of the emerging evidence of its involvement in the gold smuggling case, Life Mission corruption and manipulation in the voters’ list.
Addressing a news conference here on Thursday, he said that the government would have to reconsider its restrictions of allowing only five persons to publicly protest in the wake of the COVID-19 spread in the State.
Unlike the Congress-led UDF, the BJP was not a party that succumbed to the decisions of the government, Mr. Surendran said, adding that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also called him to stop the protests.
He alleged that the government itself was violating the COVID-19 protocol for its own convenience. More than 500 persons participated in a function in which Minister for Devaswom Kadakampally Surendran participated in Thiruvananthapuram recently, he pointed out.
‘CM must clarify’
He said that the Enforcement Directorate probing the money trail behind the gold smuggling through the diplomatic channel had filed a chargesheet exposing the links between the Chief Minister and the key suspect Swapna Suresh. If the Chief Minister did not clarify on this, his silence would be seen as an admission of guilt, Mr. Surendran said.
On the allegation that Union Minister of State V. Muraleedharan had breached protocol norms, Mr. Surendran said it was only to outmanoeuvre the public attention from the ongoing gold smuggling case.
Mahila Morcha secretary Smitha Menon had attended the international meet in her capacity as a PR professional after registering in the media category. Now CPI(M) leaders were behind the cyber propaganda against Mr. Muraleedharan, he said.
