THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF is all set to intensify its campaign demanding the ouster of government Chief Whip P C George and Forest Minister K B Ganesh Kumar from their posts for their controversial and derogatory remarks against Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan and former Minister A K Balan. A crucial meeting of the Front here on Wednesday rejected the apologies tendered by the Minister and decided to boycott all public and government functions of the duo until their specific demand is met. Asking the government to file a case against George under the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act, the meeting also demanded the cancellation of the remission order which facilitated the early release of former Minister R Balakrishna Pillai, while he was serving a one-year jail term in the Edamalayar graft case. LDF convenor Vaikom Viswan told reporters that the Chief Minister should sack the Minister and the Chief Whip if his stance of denouncing their acts in the Assembly was sincere. The meet has also given its nod for A K Balan to proceed against George legally and approved the moves of the Opposition Leader in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the order releasing Pillai from judicial custody. Terming the remarks made by Ganesh Kumar in his Pathanapuram speech against Achuthanandan as ‘`no sound person would have made them,’’ the LDF convenor said that the apology tendered by the Minister on the next day was apparently “conditional’’ and hence, unacceptable. ‘’The words used by Ganesh Kumar against a person like Achuthanandan, who is in public life for seven decades, was highly deplorable. All sections of society have protested against it. His statements was a shame upon the people of the state,’’ he said. Vaikom Viswan also said that the Minister’s remarks on the attack against teacher Krishnakumar in the course of the same speech also raised suspicions. Targeting P C George, the LDF convenor said that the casteist remarks against A K Balan and demeaning statements about the woman Watch and Ward staff made by the Chief Whip was against the political culture of the state and challenged the progressive tradition embraced by society. “Democratic organisations and women’s outfits should come out in protest against George,’’ he said. ‘’The statement against Balan is an affront to the entire SC/ST sections. And the remarks on the Watch and Ward is an insult to the entire womanhood,’’ he said. On the casteist remarks, the government ought to have initiated suo moto proceedings against George. “None of the actions of George could be justified. And the stance of the Chief Minister on it deserves protest,’’ he said . Meanwhile, P C George, reacting to the LDF decision, said: ‘’It is not at the expense of the LDF that I am in public life. It is better for them to go to the court. We’ll see there,’’ he said. The strategy of the LDF is to mobilise various SC/ST outfits to launch an agitation against George on the one hand and to corner minister Ganesh Kumar as well as his father on the other on other issues.
Comments
0 comment