Congress seeks to corner Vijayan in Assembly over CPI-M office bomb attack

Thiruvananthapuram : The Kerala Assembly on Monday witnessed curious scenes when the Congress-led opposition sought to move an adjournment motion on the ‘bomb’ attack of the CPI-M party headquarters last Thursday, but Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sought to play down the incident and asserted that the “real culprits” will be found.

If there were any lapses on the part of the police, it will be found out, he added.

Seeking leave for the motion, Congress legislator P.C. Vishnunath said that they have to bring out this in the Assembly as no one from the treasury benches failed to raise the matter.

He also noted that in the wake of the attack, several Congress offices were attacked because just five minutes after the incident, Left Democratic Front convenor E.P.Jayarajan blamed opposition party workers.

Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan said that the law and order situation in the state has deteriorated and the worst affected have been his Congress workers.

“It’s been four days since the ‘bomb’ was hurled by a person on the party office which comes under the most guarded places in the capital city. Surprisingly on the day this took place, the customary police jeep which is always there was not there. Why this happened?” he asked.

“How could Jayarajan say in five minutes time that the Congress was behind this. Even more surprising was the statement from top party leader P.K. Sreemathi (who was in the party office) who said that there was a huge deafening noise. I had to call up our leader to ask if we sent a ballistic missile,” Satheesan said, sending members into splits of laughter.

In his response, Vijayan, however, decided to attack his arch-rival and State Congress President K. Sudhakaran, who also hails from his home town Kannur, and recalled all his previous.

“He (referring to Sudhakaran without taking his name) knows everything about bombs and a leading English magazine in the yesteryears had carried out a detailed article on bombs, which referred to him,” he said.

Vijayan went on to add that they are not a party which attacks party offices.

“When the office of Rahul Gandhi was attacked in Wayanad, we took instant action, when the Congress office was attacked in Kottayam, we arrested those who did it. In the attack on our state headquarters, we do not want to just come out with some culprit. The police will definitely bring the real culprit to book and that’s why there has been a delay. We will also examine if there was any lapse on the part of the police,” he said.

Following this, the motion was put to vote and failed to pass. Satheesan, then leading the entire opposition out of the house, said they are really thankful to the government for taking up this discussion for a discussion.

“Vijayan has not been able to give any answers to our questions. The government is rattled due to the various revelations and all this attacks of our offices is done with the full knowledge of Vijayan’s office,” he alleged before the walkout.