More articles by

Cithara Paul
Cithara Paul

NCP intrigue

Good news for Kerala NCP, but no cheer for Thomas Chandy

Saseendhran-chandy-rinkuraj A.K. Saseendran with Thomas Chandy | Rinkuraj Mattancheriyil

It is good news for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Kerala as the state government on Wednesday accepted a report submitted by the judicial commission that was investigating allegations of sexual harassment against former state minister A.K. Saseendran. The NCP had lost its lone cabinet berth as both of its representatives, Saseendran and Thomas Chandy, had to resign this year following allegations of misconduct.

But it was obviously bad news for Chandy, the business tycoon–turned–NCP minister who was forced to resign last week and was making all possible moves to make a comeback. It was only last week that Chandy had resigned following allegations of land grabbing by a resort owned by him. He had become the NCP's minister when Saseendran resigned after a TV channel aired a telephonic conversation between him and a lady journalist with implicit sexual overtones.

Announcing Chandy's resignation, state NCP chief T.P. Peethambaran had said that whoever gets absolved first will become the next minister.

Luck seems to have favoured Saseendran as he was the first one to get absolved.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today said that Saseendran, who had resigned after the channel aired the audio clip, could now return to the Cabinet as the commission didn’t find him guilty. “But his Nationalist Congress Party has to take a decision,” Vijayan said.

Reacting to the CM's comment, the state leader of NCP said Saseendran deserved to be a minister if cleared of all charges. “There is no change in that stand. I have apprised our party national leadership about the developments leading to the resignation of Thomas Chandy and the issues related to the (Justice P.S.) Antony Commission report," he said.

Meanwhile, Saseendran thanked the LDF leadership for having faith in him. When asked whether he would return to the LDF ministry, the Alathur MLA said the decision on such matters has to be taken by the NCP and LDF leadership. "I am a disciplined soldier of the party. Whatever responsibility the leadership gives me, I will gladly accept," he added.

Chandy, who was planning to move the Supreme Court to get the report against him quashed, however, was not ready to comment on the issue.

Channel to face heat

Mangalam TV, the channel that had aired the telephone conversation of Saseendran as an exclusive, is likely to face the music as the Justice P.S. Antony Commission has recommended that the licence of the channel be cancelled. The commission report had also called for the prosecution of the chief executive of the channel.

Talking to journalists, the CM said the channel had aired the audio clip to boost its rating. “It was a criminal conspiracy,” he said. “We will forward the recommendation to the Centre.”

The commission said that it had no conclusive evidence before it to prove the charge and that the only inference it could, therefore, arrive at was that the audio clip was the product of a trap set by the TV channel. This, the commission said, was complete breach of all norms of journalistic ethics and should be proceeded against.

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.
Topics : #Kerala | #corruption | #NCP | #LDF

Related Reading