Priyanka hits out at “frauds and scams” left govt in Kerala

Kollam/Karunagapally (Ker): On the campaign trail in Kerala, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday mounted a scathing attack on the CPI(M)-led LDF government, saying it was a dispensation of “frauds and scams”, which was following a “corporate” manifesto.

Gandhi said the Left Democratic Front government had sworn allegiance to the communist manifesto but was actually following “corporate manifesto” like the Modi government at the Centre.

The LDF government failed to recognize the “real gold” of Kerala — the people of the state, she said, addressing a public meeting in Kollam alluding to the gold smuggling case.

It seems the LDF government was more interested in foreign gold and in gold smuggling and in giving the fishing contracts to multinational companies, she alleged.

“Their agenda is to sell the assets of the state to corporates,” the Congress leader said at a series of public meetings at Karunagapally, Kollam, and Kottarakara.

Slamming the “politics of violence” of the left front, she said several youth congress workers had lost their lives over the years.

But the “democratic” government “protected” the killers, she said, referring to the slaying of two youth congress workers at Periya, allegedly by CPI(M) workers.

While the LDF government showed a lot of “concern” for the wrongs against women in other states, Gandhi claimed its response in the case relating to the suspicious deaths of two minor sisters in Walayar after being sexually assaulted in 2017, was similar to that of the Uttar Pradesh government in the death of a young girl at Hathras.

“They tried to hide evidence, they tried to show it as a suicide, they diluted the investigation.Instead of punishing policemen, they rewarded them. In a state where we expect women to be supported, is this the kind of government that we want?” she asked.

On the ”Love Jihad” issue, she claimed if the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister comes to Kerala for campaigning, he would bring up issues like ”Love Jihad.”

But the LDF”s alliance partners are speaking in the same language, she said, citing the response of Kerala Congress (M) leader Jose K Mani on the matter, without naming him.

“This government has been a government of frauds and scams. Every time a new scam emerges, the chief minister says he has no idea about it. Now I want to ask him, if he has no idea what is happening under his nose, then who is running the government ?” Gandhi, who is on a hectic tour of the southern districts, said.

She also attacked the government on the ”EMCC scam” in which the state government had signed an MOU with a US-based multinational company for the construction of deep-sea fishing trawlers.

WhatsApp chats from the chief minister’s office on the deal had come to the public domain and the fishing community knows that the chief minister is not telling the truth, she claimed.

Instead of supporting the fishermen community, the government sold the deep-sea fishing for Rs 5,000 crore to corporates, the congress leader alleged. “Their promises on cashew industry have fallen flat,” she said. The congress leader began her campaign for the April 6 assembly polls, by taking out a roadshow at Kayamkulam in Alappuzha district, seeking votes for the party candidate Aritha Babu