Malappuram: Nilambur MLA P V Anvar on Thursday expressed deep disappointment with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, stating that he once saw the CM as a father figure but now feels betrayed. "But I also sensed the CM's helplessness," Anvar added during a press conference at the PWD rest house at Nilambur in Malappuram.
Anvar recounted a meeting where he submitted an 11-page complaint to the CM against ADGP (Law & Order) M R Ajith Kumar, IPS officer Sujith Das, and political secretary P Sasi—all close allies of Pinarayi Vijayan. "I told the CM that all three were corrupt and warned him they might threaten him. I could see his helplessness. Sasi is responsible for bringing the CM to this state. Pinarayi Vijayan, once the shining sun of Kerala, has lost his brilliance. His approval, once at 100, has now plummeted to zero," Anvar said.
Anvar said he felt cheated by the Chief Minister. "He listened to me and responded like he has been considerably weakened by the actions of these people close to him," he said of the meeting he had with the CM on September 3.
"He made a gesture that conveyed both shock at the activities of those close to him and also a kind of helplessness," Anvar said. "But later, his actions showed that he was merely trying to give me a false sense of triumph. I am not the one who would fall for such illusions," he said.
The Nilambur MLA was referring to the government's move to effect a mass transfer of senior police officers in the Malappuram district after he gave his complaint to the CM in writing and also its decision to order a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau probe into the property deal of ADGP Ajithkumar. "This Vigilance probe was given five months when the evidence submitted by me (documents showing that the ADGP had purchased land in 2016 for Rs 33.8 lakh and in ten days had sold it for Rs 65 lakh, nearly double the price) was enough to suspend him on the spot," Anvar said.
Initially, it looked like Anvar's only issue with the CM was that he had refused to act against the two people (P Sasi and the ADGP) against whom he had provided incriminatory evidence. He tried, at least during the early stages of the nearly two-hour press conference, to spare the CM by repeatedly speaking about his father-like respect for the CM. But the ruse soon wore off.
"He (Pinarayi) has no right whatsoever to continue as home minister," Anvar said. In this deeply vindictive mood, Anvar even contradicted himself.
Earlier during the press conference he had said that it was the performance of the Chief Minister that had given the LDF a second consecutive win. But later, he hinted that the CM was incompetent even during his first term. "Sivasankar (the CM's private secretary who was jailed during the gold smuggling scandal) lived with Swapna Suresh in an apartment right across from the Secretariat. And yet the CM did not know what was going on," Anvar said.
There was more: "Pinarayi will be the last CPM chief minister of Kerala." Further, he said that even leaders like state secretary M V Govindan were helpless. "Should the party exist only for Riyas (the tourism minister who is also the CM's son-i-law)," he said. Amid this rant, while expressing his bitterness about the CM's concern for ADGP Ajithkumar, he was bitingly sarcastic: "May be, he is another son in law."
Anvar even went to the extent of painting Pinarayi as vile. "I am only hoping that the reins of the party gets pulled back to the good men from the hands of the vicious". Far more damaging was Anvar's mocking insinuation that Pinarayi Vijayan was subservient to the BJP.
When asked at whose orders the 'Thrissur pooram' was scuttled, here is what Anvar said: "Whoever wanted to gift a Lok Sabha seat for the BJP and through it strike certain adjustments with the Centre, that person would have given the orders."
Was it the CM, he was asked. "I will not tell that. You find out," he said, mimicking the CM's remarks on September 21 after he insinuated that Anvar could be working for gold smugglers frustrated by the actions of the Kerala police.
