Kochi: The theme of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s morning press briefing as part of his Nava Kerala Yatra outreach programme here on Friday was the advancements Kerala has been making in the business and industries front, a topic he thought would attract the attention of the state’s so-called commercial capital. A pleasant Vijayan listed out the investments and job opportunities that have been coming to state in recent years and even invoked an IT major’s statement about the “reverse migration” to paint a rosy picture of the state’s business sector amid growing concerns of a financial crisis. However, the chief minister lost his cool soon after he finished reading out the written script and started taking questions.

The press meet coincided with the Kerala High Court serving notice to 12 people including Vijayan and his daughter T Veena over the illegal payment made by the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) to Veena's firm Exalogic Solutions. The first question, naturally, was about the court order and Vijayan’s response was this: “Let it come, let’s see what happens. You don’t have to worry about it.”

The chief minister then responded with contempt to the questions about his party workers assaulting media persons who were covering a black flag protest against his yatra on Friday.

“I don’t know if something has happened as part of media persons not practising journalism. You should not organise such people (protesters). That’s what we often see. That’s not a common way of practising journalism. You don’t have to wave black flag,” Vijayan said. As another reporter tried to interrupt at this point, the CM visibly got angry. “I’m responding to him. Why are you interrupting,” the CM asked silencing the reporter.

He then went on to repeat that journalists were arranging people for black flag protest and shooting the visuals. “I haven’t seen any visual of anyone attacking protesters,” he said. Vijayan kept saying that the incident on Thursday had no connection with his yatra. When it was pointed out that a case has been registered against those who assaulted the media crew of a web portal, he said, “it will be looked into separately”.

CM quotes IBM official
The chief minister cited a recent statement by IBM Software’s senior vice president (products) Dinesh Varma that a reverse migration has been happening to Kerala among the company’s workforce. “This is the change that has happened in Kerala in the last seven years. Kerala, which was branded as a land where big industries are impossible and not business-friendly, is correcting such impressions. During the said period, we have made it to the 15th spot in central government’s ease of doing business’ ranking,” he said.

Citing data to prove his point, he said nearly 1,000 people have got job within one year in IBM Software Lab which was opened in Kochi Infopark. He also mentioned the MoU signed by Kinfra Park, Kazhakuttam with Tata Elxsi for its operations. “They were handed over a 2.17 lakh sqft building in eight months. As many as 3,500 engineers work there. They have also sought 2 lakh sqft more at Kinfra for expansion,” he said.

He named companies like TCS, D-Space, Safran, Lulu Food Processing and Choice which function in Kerala to drive his point home. He said the Meet the Investor programme has attracted investments to the tune of Rs 11,000 crore to the state since it began in October 2021.