The war of words between Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and KPCC chief K. Sudhakaran took a new turn on Saturday with the Congress chief denying the allegations raised by the chief minister and slamming him for using the language of a political criminal. Pinarayi had alleged that a former Congress leader, who is no more, had once revealed to him that Sudhakaran had plans to kidnap the chief minister's two children. Refuting the allegations, Sudhakaran asked why Pinarayi did not file a police complaint back then. “Why did Pinarayi not inform his wife or take any measures to ensure his children's safety if the threat was genuine,” asked Sudhakaran. He also wanted to know why Pinarayi is not revealing the informer's name. Raising such allegations against his political opponent after several years is not fair, he added.
Sudhakaran said he did not claim to have kicked Pinarayi during a political fight at the Government Brennen College, Thalaserry. “There was a brawl at the college that day, but I did not make any such claim to the media on record.” Responding to the CM's accusations that Sudhakaran had illegal foreign currency dealings, the latter said it was the government led by Pinarayi that engaged in dollar smuggling during its five-year rule. "The CM had claimed that he did not know gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh, who had accompanied him four years. Even a child will not believe his claims," Sudhakaran said. “Kerala saw the real Pinarayi Vijayan who came out of his PR veil. His language was that of a political criminal. I will not stoop to his level out of respect to the position I hold,” Sudhakaran told mediapersons at the Ernakulam District Congress Committee (DCC) office on Saturday.
The KPCC chief also challenged the CM to prove the allegations. Referring to a 2007 incident of Pinarayi Vijayan being detained at Chennai airport after bullets were found in his bag, the Congress chief asked who is the real mafia, a "gun-possessing Pinarayi" or "unarmed Sudhakaran". Vijayan, in the course of his daily COVID-19 press meet on Friday, was asked to comment on Sudhakaran's claim, in an interview soon after taking over as state chief, that in his college days, he had kicked down Vijayan, who was his senior at the Government Brennen College, Thalaserry, in Kannur district. As he heard the question, Vijayan laughed, before saying: "I do not wish to revisit the olden days, but since it has been revisited, I will also respond. "All what he [Sudhakaran] has been saying is nothing but his imagination and there's no truth in it."
Vijayan quoted from the comments of other Congress leaders like P. Ramakrishnan and Mambaram Divakaran to call him corrupt, rascal, murderer and even a kidnapper. Then, he said that he wished to share an incident which has not been disclosed before. "Many years back, when I was at my home in Kannur, I saw a person walking into my house and he was a very close aide of Sudhakaran. Initially I was surprised, as to why should he come to my house. When he came close to me, he asked me if I was surprised to see him here. I said 'yes'. He said he has to tell me a secret and wanted to say it in private. I said there is none and hence he can say what he wants. He told me Sudhakaran has a plan to kidnap my two young children, and hence I have to be very careful."
"When I heard this, I laughed, but I decided I will not tell my wife, because she, a schoolteacher, would be scared as everyday it was she who used to take our children to the school," Vijayan claimed.
