Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has clearly enjoyed his former principal secretary M Sivasankar's best-selling memoir "Ashwathamavu Verum Oru Aana" ('Ashwathamavu is Just an Elephant').
On Wednesday, while meeting the press after a hiatus of over four months, the chief minister did not conceal his glee that Sivasankar had used his book to take down two entities he himself deeply despises: the media and the central investigating agencies.
"Sivasankar has registered very strong opinions about certain things in his book. One was about the behaviour of the media. And the other was the approach of the central investigating agencies," the Chief Minister said.
Sivasankar had said in his book that the media was concocting fanciful stories and the investigating agencies had applied pressure on him to implicate the chief minister.
"We should see that a special sort of vengeance would rise in the victims (media and central agencies) of such criticism," he said with a sharp half-smile that seemed to say that he was enjoying the deep unease being suffered by the media and the Customs and the Enforcement Directorate after Sivasankar's book came out.
He said that it was vengeance that had prompted the media to revive the gold smuggling case. The Chief Minister even went to the extent of hinting at a conspiracy between the media and the central agencies. "Only time will tell whether the agencies and the media were jointly planning the whole thing," the chief minister said.
Nonetheless, he sought to ignore the question of whether Sivasankar had written the book with government permission. When reporters insisted on an answer, the chief minister said it was just a technical issue that the government would look into. “Whether a government official could write a book or not is something for the government to examine. That the government will look into,” he said.
Former DGP Jacob Thomas was not shown such lenience. He was suspended for writing a memoir 'Sravukalkoppam Neenthumbol' ('Swimming with the Sharks') on the ground that he had not sought government permission. His retirement benefits have also been withheld by the government.
When he was asked about Swapna's appointment to the Space Park using fake certificates, the chief minister said that the government itself had initiated a probe in this matter. "The process is going on, the evidence gathering is taking place," the chief minister said.
In fact, a three-member committee headed by the Chief Secretary had over one-and-a-half years ago recommended that the Rs 20 lakh paid to Swapna Suresh during her stint at the Space Park should be recovered from the official responsible for her appointment. And the 'official responsible' was none other than Sivasankar.
“Sivasankar was behind Swapna's appointment,” the Chief Secretary's panel had stated. At that point, Sivasankar was the principal secretary of the IT Department under which fell the Space Park.
The chief secretary's report had also said that Sivasankar's conduct in the appointment of Swapna "constituted a violation of India Service Conduct Rules".
However, Sivasankar in his book said that he had not recommended Swapna's name to anyone. Swapna, in her counter, said that it was Sivasankar who had recommended her and said that he was also aware of her fake degree.
Whenever uncomfortable questions like whether an enquiry would be opened against Sivasankar based on Swapna's revelations were posed, the chief minister would tease the reporters: "I can understand your pain. Weren't you guys the most criticised in the book. When you reach the portions related to Malayala Manorama, you will badly feel the heat."
He was a bit stumped when asked how he could say that Sivasankar was right when the investigation was not yet complete. This was the only time on Wednesday his triumphant body language deserted him. He suddenly turned severe. "He was only writing about his experiences, about what you people did to him. Let him do so," he said.
