Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The arrival of veteran Congress chief AK Antony has set the agenda for UDF’s electioneering. Antony has stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, each eager to see a Congress-mukt Bharat, will ask the BJP cadre to vote for the Left on the fag finish of campaigning to stop the Congress from coming to energy in Kerala. In a freewheeling interview to TNIE, the 80-year-old says even communists don’t need the incumbent authorities to proceed in energy. Excerpts.
Over the previous few days, you may have been slamming Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Why?My opposition just isn’t in direction of Pinarayi, however the LDF authorities. My conviction is that the Left mustn’t return to energy as it’s harmful. Had Donald Trump returned to energy, the world would have been in shambles. If the Pinarayi authorities, identified for its stubbornness, returns to energy, can anybody management it? I’m not anti-communist. Even my communist associates say that the Pinarayi authorities mustn’t return to energy to make sure the get together just isn’t destroyed like in West Bengal.
The LDF has been saying that one mustn’t vote for the UDF as right this moment’s Congress is tomorrow’s BJP.Rahul Gandhi is the one chief travelling throughout the nation talking in opposition to the BJP and the RSS ideology. The coverage of the BJP is Congress-mukt Bharat. Look at their deeds in Manipur, Goa and Arunachal Pradesh, and the way they sabotaged the federal government in Puduchery. Towards the fag finish of the campaigning, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will urge their get together leaders to make sure help to the LDF in order that the Congress doesn’t come to energy. The actuality is that they are going to see to it {that a} Congress authorities just isn’t shaped.
Why ought to the individuals, particularly the poor, vote in opposition to the LDF which has initiated a number of welfare schemes?Providing meals kits to the individuals is a brief reduction. How lengthy can individuals survive on kits? Can individuals all the time have meals from reduction camps? Can they survive on Rs 2,000 welfare pension alone? Kerala has the biggest variety of unemployed youth which is escalating yearly. Two floods occurred and the farming and enterprise sectors have been affected. What did the LDF authorities do for them? The PSC not has transparency and belief with greater than three lakh backdoor appointments made. How can youths vote them to energy?
The UDF has been highlighting the Sabarimala problem when the Left says it’s not of their ballot agenda.Pinarayi says they are going to seek the advice of all stakeholders and maintain deliberations when the Supreme Court takes up the Sabarimala problem. But a day after the sooner Supreme Court verdict, they tried to implement the order in haste. The Left tried to polarise individuals, as these for and in opposition to renaissance. Two ladies activists have been taken from Pamba to Sannidhanam underneath the safety of greater than 200 policemen. Is that not provocation? Women voters who vividly bear in mind the faces of the 2 ladies activists who entered the Sannidhanam is not going to vote for this authorities.
After 2001, the UDF has not been in a position to produce a powerful efficiency within the elections. In 2011, the alliance scraped by way of narrowly. The efficiency was dismal in 2016. How are you able to be certain of a UDF comeback?Earlier, a choice to usher in deep sea trawlers from overseas was objected to by all political events with MPs from LDF and UDF collectively holding a protest that I had inaugurated at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Now the LDF authorities has the audacity to permit a US agency to usher in trawlers. That occurred as a result of they know none will come of their means. That’s why I’m repeatedly saying, and I worry, authorities will turn into autocratic ought to the LDF retain to energy.
Do you assume the Chief Minister’s Office was concerned within the gold smuggling case?It is a shame that the Chief Minister’s principal secretary was concerned in gold smuggling. Why has the central authorities not taken any initiative to grill the UAE Consulate authorities? There are a number of components of thriller behind the case. After the customs made a lot brouhaha over the difficulty, the ball is within the courtroom of the chief minister, finance minister, dwelling minister and the prime minister to disclose the intricacies within the case.
After the exit of the Kerala Congress (M) from the UDF, the Muslim League has turn into a formidable pressure. Will there be energy sharing points?One get together rule had resulted in 1959. The IUML had joined the Democratic Front in 1969, when C Achuthamenon was the CM and Okay Karunakaran the house minister. The IUML has been part of the UDF for 50 years, and is the second largest get together. The chief minister will all the time be from the Congress.
Is the Congress toeing the NSS line and attempting to appease them?We can’t toe the road of 1 group organisation. We can take solely a balanced view. We haven’t any enmity or dislike in direction of anybody. We share cordial relations with everybody and have served justice to everybody. Congress has by no means tried to create any rift amongst communities to stay in energy.
You had aired a powerful assertion in opposition to minorities a few years in the past. Now you appear to be in a compromise mode.What I meant was that everybody ought to be served justice. My concept is that social justice and communal justice ought to be ensured. The Congress as an entire just isn’t exhibiting any minority appeasement. I don’t find out about leaders exhibiting such traits. The obligation of the Congress leaders is to guard the rights of everybody. Curtain will fall on my parliamentary profession, which began in 1977, in April 2022. After my time period ends, I’ll return to Thiruvananthapuram. I received’t retire and can stay lively in Congress politics.
