Apparently to give Kerala Congress (Mani) enough space to politically exist within the LDF after the the government counsel termed K M Mani corrupt in the Supreme Court, the CPM's acting state secretary and LDF convener A Vijayaraghavan said that the 2015 Budget Day disruption in the Assembly was not against K M Mani but against the corruption in the UDF.
"The Vigilance had said that Mani had no direct role in the Bar Bribery scandal," said Vijayaraghavan, who quickly came out to address the media in between the ongoing CPM State Secretariat meet in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. He even went on to suggest that Mani was a non-corrupt leader but was sullied only by his association with the UDF. "They (KC-M) had come to the LDF disowning the UDF and calling it a den of corruption," the acting state secretary said.
The KC(M) was rattled when it was reported that the Kerala Government's counsel, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, orally told the Supreme Court that the "former finance minister was corrupt". The counsel was providing the context for the unruly behaviour of the LDF members inside the Assembly on March 13, 2015.
In a strongly worded statement on July 5, KC(M) general secretary Stephen George urged the government to withdraw the statement and seek an explanation from the counsel who made what the KC(M) termed "the irresponsible statement".
Though the CPM State Secretariat was convened to take stock of the election victory and draw up future plans, the initial deliberations were about the counsel's oral statement against the former finance minister in the Supreme Court.
Vijayaraghavan not only refused to call Mani corrupt but also said that the anti-LDF media had conspired to give a fabricated report of the proceedings in the Supreme Court on July 5. "Never once was the name of K M Mani mentioned during the proceedings in the Supreme Court," Vijayaraghavan said.
Vijayaraghavan was technically right as the name Mani was not uttered in the court. Instead, the senior counsel said "the former finance minister was corrupt". Who the finance minister was when the Assembly was disrupted in 2015 is not a matter of dispute.
But Vijayaraghavan insisted that the protest of the LDF MLAs was against the UDF's corruption. "The UDF government was then steeped in corruption," he said, hinting that Mani was merely trapped in the corrupt UDF morass.
Vijayaraghavan also alleged that the media had a sinister design in manufacturing fake reports. "The KC(M) is a prominent constituent of the LDF. It is with mutual respect that the LDF functions. Naturally, a section of the media is trying to create misunderstanding within the LDF," he said.
The Budget Day violence on March 13, 2015, was the chaotic climax of the LDF's political decision to prevent then Finance Minister K M Mani from not just presenting the budget but also entering the House. The UDF legislators but hoodwinked their LDF counterparts, sneaked the minister inside the House providing layers of protection and made him read out of the Assembly speech. Thwarted, the LDF members ran riot.
Officially, the damages were estimated to be Rs 2.2 lakh. Four imported mike units worth Rs 1.46 lakh were the costliest items destroyed. The damage to the Speaker's chair pushed down by E P Jayarajan and Jaleel was estimated to be Rs 20,000. The damage inflicted on the Speaker's monitor was worth Rs 28,000.
The Supreme Court orally said on July 5 that it could not condone the behaviour of the legislators.
