Congress calls Kerala CM's face-to-face programme as "stage-management-show"

The Congress in Kerala on Saturday slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s ongoing face-to-face programme addressing various sections of people and dubbed it as a ”stage-management-show”.

It accused the government of using prearranged questions during the programme to ensure that no negative queries were posed against the ruling dispensation. Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan said when the CM was going to meet students and youth as part of the event, job aspirants, included in the Civil Police Officer (CPO) rank list of the state Public Service Commission, have been protesting in front of the Secretariat in the state capital for the past 10 days. The LoP was addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the party’s state-wide campaign ”Samaragni” when it reaches in this coastal district. Vijayan was going ahead with his Face-to-Face programme when the CPO rank holders were staging protests against their non-appointment by eating grass and crawling on their knees in front of the Secretariat, he said. ”The Chief Minister’s face-to-face programme is a stage-management-show,” Satheesan alleged. Vijayan has addressed different sections of society including college students, women and backward communities so far under the programme. The Congress leader further charged the CPI (M)-led LDF with indulging in communal polarisation in the southern state like the BJP-led government at the Centre. The propaganda method of the Left front was intended to target only certain sections, he alleged.