Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday expressed happiness at the manner in which the State responded to attempts to degrade the late R. Sankar’s exalted status and convert the related function into a programme of the Sangh Parivar. Then he will go by helicopter for the Combined Commander’s conference on board the Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, anchored off Kochi coast.
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The Prime Minister apologised for not coming to Kerala earlier.
“There has been no pressure from the BJP or anyone else to prevent the Chief Minister from attending the function”, Natesan said at Kollam.
But Mr. Chandy took to micro-blogging site Twitter to say that the people of Kerala had been insulted by the withdrawal of invitation to the Chief Minister of the State.
Congress and BJP members clashed in the Lok Sabha over the issue with the former alleging that the prime minister’s constitutional position was being used for “political vendetta”, a charge rejected as “baseless” by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who said the Centre had nothing to do with it.
Meanwhile, Chandy has released a letter from Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, a social organisation hosting the event, asking him not to attend the statue unveiling function on December 15. Congress Working Committee (CWC) president and former defence minister A.K Antony termed it insulting to the chief minister as well as the people of Kerala. This instantly blew up into a political controversy with both the ruling UDF and the Opposition LDF sharply criticising Natesan for insulting the Chief Minister of the State. “The PM has insulted that voice”, Gandhi told reporters.
“It is not a personal insult”.
On the other hand, BJP has denied any role in organizing the event saying that official protocol does not apply here and so there is no need for the CM presence. He was never a follower of JanSangh.
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He said allowing all to participate in the event would have been the proper move to pay “best homage” to R Shankar.
