The Hindu : Kerala News : Chief Minister adopting double standards: UDF

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Sunday, Apr 08, 2007
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Chief Minister adopting double standards: UDF

A Correspondent

NEDUMBASSERY: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan was adopting double standards by not asking his Cabinet colleagues A.K. Balan and Paloli Mohammed Kutty to step down in the wake of court findings against them, UDF Convener P.P. Thankachan said here on Saturday.

Talking to mediapersons here at the Cochin International Airport, Mr. Thankachan said that the Chief Minister had sought the resignation of P.J. Joseph from the Cabinet on the ground that an FIR was filed against him in the court.

Different yardstick

He, however, did not follow the same yardstick in the case of the other two Ministers despite they being found guilty by the court, Mr. Thankachan said.

Is it fare to follow two sets of rules just because Mr.Joseph was from an allied party while the other two were from his own party, he asked. He urged Mr. Achuthanandan to explain this double standards.

While Mr. Balan had already been convicted, Mr. Kutty was found guilty by the court and the hearing scheduled for April 11 was merely to decide about the punishment to be handed out, he said.

In this context, the CPI(M) State Secretariat decision that the Ministers need not resign and should deal with the issue politically was unfortunate and deplorable, he said.

He said that their continuance as Ministers had no justification and was no longer tenable. Mr. Thankachan opined that while both of them could continue as MLAs they had no right to serve as ministers.

He urged the two ministers to follow the precedents set by leaders like K. Karunakaran, M.P. Gangadharan, R. Balakrishna Pillai and K.P. Viswanathan who resigned from ministerial posts following court proceedings against them, though the charges against them were not as serious.

Threatens stir

He said that if the ministers did not resign or were not ousted, the UDF would launch agitations. The course of action to be taken would be decided at the UDF leadership meet convened at the Kottayam DCC office on Tuesday.

He alleged that the CPI(M) was on a path of confrontation with the judiciary and the media.

Bogus allegations like the presence of a "media syndicate" were being cooked up to attack media for exposing the wrongdoings of the Government or the leaders of the Marxist party, he said.

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