The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : CPI sees campaign against leaders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 26, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

CPI sees campaign against leaders

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India (CPI) has termed the ongoing ‘campaign’ against its State secretary and two Ministers over the recent police station incident here as a blatant effort to protect the interests of retail giants.

At a press conference here on Sunday, CPI district secretary P. Ramachandran Nair said that the volunteers of its youth wing All India Youth Federation (AIYF) had taken out their march to the Big Bazaar in the city last week as part of the party’s stand against the present trend of retail giants monopolising the retail business in the country, threatening the very existence of small retailers. But the police, in a planned action, created provocation and unnecessarily unleashed a lathicharge on the protesters.

He said that, when AIYF volunteers took refuge in the party office nearby, the police followed them and tried to break open its doors. The party workers thwarted this attempt. The police surrounded the office for hours together and rounded up several party workers, some of them from places far away from the scene of action. The arrested volunteers were beaten up at the Thampanoor station.

Mr. Ramachandran Nair said that it was not unusual for party leaders to visit their colleagues detained in a police station following an agitation.

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