Communists seek to oust Kerala government
Thousands lay siege to state offices as fallout in solar power scandal grows.
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| Thousands of members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) fill the streets of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala state, to demand the ouster of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy |
Pinarayi Vijayan, state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said some 100,000 party workers are in Thiruvananthapuram to protest what they say is rampant corruption within the state government.
Today they blocked all major roads to the secretariat, the headquarters of the state administration.
“It’s to oust a corrupt government and chief minister who have promoted a major scam in the state,” Vijayan told ucanews.com.
Communist-led opposition leaders have been protesting since June 4, accusing the government of backing a shady solar power company that duped many people into buying solar power units that were never installed.
Three officials from Chandy’s office allegedly made several phone calls to the main suspect Saritha S Nair, an actress and director of the company Team Solar.
Chandy and other officials say those accused of fraud have been arrested and investigations against them are ongoing. The government cannot be held responsible for duping people.
The government has responded by deploying 10,000 armed policemen, including a 2,000-strong paramilitary force in case the protest becomes violent.
“We are watching the protests closely. If the protests remain peaceful, we won’t use force,” said P Vijayan, Police Commissioner in Thiruvananthapuram.
But the communists have promised a peaceful protest.
“Our protests will be peaceful. But the government has deployed paramilitary forces to crush the people,” said Vijayan of the CPI(M).
All the city’s shops and roads are closed as thousands of communist supporters, mostly clad in red, pour in from different parts of the state.
The communists have set up 13 field kitchens and stored enough food supplies for two weeks, in a protest the scale of which the state has not witnessed in recent years.
We will not end the siege until Chandy resigns, Kadakampally Surendran, chief organizer of the protests, told ucanews.com.
"We have the resources to continue our struggle until he quits,” he said.
The government says it will not back down to the protesters.
“We can’t shut down the secretariat. We have called in paramilitary forces as a precautionary step,” said Thiruvanchiyur Radhakrishnan, home minister of Kerala.
He said the opposition is "trying to make a big issue out of nothing".
“When this solar scam became public, we investigated and arrested the key people. Now [the communists] are leveling wild allegations against the chief minister,” Radhakrishnan said.
However, doubts over Chandy’s involvement in the scandal have grown after a television channel revealed a photograph of him sharing a public platform with the main accused, Nair.
He had earlier denied having any connections with Nair.
Source: ucanews.com
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