CPM has its share of the corrupt: VS

The factional slam-bang in the Kerala CPM took another turn on Saturday, with Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan declaring that the CPM too had its share of the corrupt in its fold...

The factional slam-bang in the Kerala CPM took another turn on Saturday, with Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan declaring that the CPM too had its share of the corrupt in its fold, swearing to weed them out. The party, VS said, can’t hope to push ahead without doing so.

VS openly rued that the sheen has been taken out of the achievements of his Government, like in the Munnar eviction issue and in steering the Smart City deal, by “corruption charges of the gravest kind”.

Addressing an interface programme organised by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists in Thiruvananthapuram, VS openly condemned a close NRI businessman-ally of his arch party rival and CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, as a despicable individual of the kind the party must keep clear of. The Pinarayi camp had reportedly taken Rs 60 lakh from the man, Faris Abubacker, to run a football tournament in the name of former CM E K Nayanar at Kannur last year, though this was not publicised.

Faris is allegedly involved in several shady operations, including a reported Rs 53-crore scam at the National Kidney Foundation of Singapore. He had bought himself into the Deepika, Kerala’s oldest and church-run newspaper group, and is currently its chairman.

“Faris is certainly a despicable individual,” VS said, adding the party would look into who took the money for the tournament from him. “There will be action,” he claimed. VS also deviated sharply from the official CPM line in Kerala, which has the leadership confronting the state’s media with allegations of a “media syndicate” conspiring against the party, after each recent expose involving it.