All India Congress Committee (AICC) core committee member A.K. Antony on Wednesday invoked the image of the Kerala police “secretly and rapidly” conveying “activist women” to the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple under the cover of darkness in 2018.
The devotees would not forget the hurt caused by the Pinarayi Vijayan government’s “blind haste” to implement the Supreme Court verdict that allowed women of all ages to worship at the temple. It would reflect in the Assembly polls on April 6, he said.
Faced with inevitable defeat, Mr. Vijayan had changed tack. He had promised to hold consultations and arrive at a general agreement before implementing any future verdict on the Sabarimala issue. His belated endearments had failed to make any impression on the Ayyappa devotees, Mr. Antony said.
“Women of Kerala would not forget the widespread violence, pain and social upheaval caused by Mr. Vijayan’s ham-fisted and arbitrary attempt to enact the Sabarimala verdict,” he said.
Mr. Antony said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) would run Kerala to ruin if voted to power again. He said the government faced youth ire over back-door appointments. The administration had transformed the Public Service Commission into an agency providing government jobs to Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers.
Mr. Antony also attempted to breathe life into Flory Periera’s memory. She had died in police firing during the peak of the ‘Liberation Struggle’ against the first Communist government led by E.M.S. Namboodiripadu in 1959.
Foreign trawlers
He said the government’s move to allow foreign trawlers to raid the open seas reserved for traditional fishers had precipitated a similar situation in coastal Kerala. The fishers were up in arms against the LDF. The United Democratic Front (UDF) had spearheaded their struggle to preserve their right to livelihood.
Mr. Antony said the gold-smuggling case and the attempts to stonewall Central Bureau Investigation inquiries into political murders were permanent blots on the LDF government’s record. He said a second innings for the LDF in power would author the State’s economic and social collapse.
