The gold smuggling case has not dented the image of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
The State secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], which met here on Friday, did not have an opinion to contrary. Reports in the media were mere speculation.
The CPI(M) secretariat felt that some vested interests had seized upon the scandal surrounding the case to besmirch the government. A section of the media had rallied with the forces inimical to the government. They had attempted to lay down a smokescreen of lies in an attempt to permanently cast the office of the Chief Minister (CMO) under a pall of suspicion.
The nexus had attempted in vain to demonstrate that the current CMO was as ethically and morally challenged as the one which preceded it, the party secretariat said.
The nexus had also tried to create sensationalism by drawing a parallel between the role of a woman involved in an earlier incident linked to the previous CMO with the one accused in the gold smuggling case.
Those who used such unsavoury methods to disparage the government and make political capital might feel smug for the moment. However, when the truth emerged, the haze of the lies they created would fade away like the morning mist.
When pressed whether the scandal had dashed the hope of the LDF for a second innings in power, Mr Pinarayi said, “The electorate is the final judge. They will deliver their verdict soon”.
The CM clarified that Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel had accepted food kits for the needy from the UAE consulate as part of the Ramzan-related religious practice of charity. “There is no breach of protocol in the incident,” he said.
Mr Vijayan repeated that the government would not shield any wrongdoer. A committee constituted by the government had suspended his former Principal Secretary M. Sivasankar after it found that he lobbied for the appointment of a suspect in the gold smuggling case in the Space Park project.
The government still retained the services of the global consultancy contracted to advise the administration on the execution of the e-mobility project. It had not allowed them an office in the government Secretariat as recommended by the Transport Secretary, he said.
