Secret probe to ascertain if MT’s controversial speech was ‘prompted’

Kozhikode: The controversy over veteran litterateur M T Vasudevan Nair’s recent speech slamming totalitarianism, personality cults and ritualistic worship of political leaders refuses to die down.

The state home department conducted a secret probe on whether MT’s speech at the Kerala Literature Festival in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to ascertain if MT’s speech was ‘prompted’ or whether there was any external influence.
The secret probe report submitted to the state home ministry concluded there was no external influence or prompting vis-a-vis the controversial speech.

State home department top honchos were informed immediately after the event that the speech would stir up controversy.

After a political controversy erupted over the speech as opposition parties and media interpreted it as directed against the CM, a top official of the home department directed the special branch of the Kerala police to conduct a detailed probe again and submit a report.

The detailed probe also ruled out the external influence theory and also found out that MT was only quoting a previous work.

To substantiate this finding, the probe team also reportedly submitted the book which contained the article from which the statements invoked by MT were published.

The secret report is now being whetted at the ADGP level.

The controversial statements slamming authoritarian political cult was made by MT on January 11 during the literary fest’s inaugural event. MT did not name any political personalities.