Thiruvananthapuram: Even as a political blame-game is on over the hurling of an explosive at the CPM headquarters AKG Centre here, a photograph, in which members claiming to be from the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) are seen standing near its gate of AKG Centre, has emerged.
As per the picture doing the rounds on social media, leaders of the SDPI, led by Thiruvananthapuram district general secretary Shabeer Azad and vice-president Jaleel Karamana, visited the AKG Centre on July 1 to express their solidarity in condemning the attack on the CPM headquarters.
CPM clarification
However, the AKG Centre denied any truth to it and came out with a clarification on Monday. As per the version given by AKG Centre, a seven-member group, who identified as members of the SDPI, had approached the security guard at the ground floor around 5 pm on July 1 requesting to meet the CPM leaders in the office.
But, the CPM leaders directed the guard to not let them in as the party was not interested in meeting with members of the SDPI. Apparently, they decided to leave after waiting for over five minutes and the CPM leaders reiterated their stance about not meeting anybody from the SDPI.
“Before leaving, they decided to click a photograph near the headquarter's gate and ciculated it on social media, claiming to have met with the leaders at AKG Centre. Some media houses went ahead and published it without verifying the facts,” stated the CPM leaders.
They further said the CPM headquarters was always open to the public. “Named after the great leader AKG, this office functions as a refuge for common people. No ban has been imposed on anyone to enter AKG Centre. However, we decided to send them back as the CPM does not tolerate communal parties like the SDPI,” the centre clarified.
The SDPI members clicking a photograph near the gate and circulating it despite being turned down points to an ulterior motive, said the statement.
“Any attempt to capitalise on such fabricated news will not work. The politics upheld by the CPM is clear as day to the people and such attempts will be rejected with contempt,” the statement added.
It was on June 30 night that a man arrived on a scooter and hurled an explosive at the AKG Centre. Though the investigating team gathered as many CCTV visuals of the incident as possible, they are yet to make any breakthrough.
Currently, they are interrogating a man who passed AKG Centre on a two-wheeler 10 minutes before the incident happened.
Assembly discussion
Meanwhile, the United Democratic Front (UDF) on Monday slammed the Kerala government for delaying the investigation into the attack. Though the CPM blamed the Congress for the attack, the party denied the allegation.
“The slow pace at which the police is examining the CCTV visuals gives rise to suspicion,” MLA P C Vishnunath said during an adjournment motion moved by the UDF in the Assembly over the attack on AKG Centre as well as several Congress offices across the state, and the alleged lack of police action in these matters.
Angamaly MLA Roji John said the CPM did not have the slightest doubt that the attack was orchetrated by the SDPI or the BJP. “The Congress is their only enemy,” he added.
Speaker M B Rajesh allowed the adjournment motion to be discussed for two hours starting from 1 pm after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan agreed that the issue raised by the opposition required a discussion.
