Amid allegations against daughter, Pinarayi Vijayan maintains a loud silence

When the issue surfaced, the CPI(M) had found some respite in Congress MLA Ramesh Chennithala’s admission that his party too had received money from CMRL as “party funds” during his tenure as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and saw nothing wrong in accepting funds from business houses. But the allegedly regular payments to Veena and her IT firm from 2018-19 stood out in the I-T report, which said the payments were made without any services having been rendered.

Since then, the CPI(M)’s hopes that the issue would die down have been dashed, with Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan’s repeated salvos alleging that Veena had also received a huge tranche of money from CMRL as political funding. Kuzhalnandan dared the CPI(M) to respond to his allegation.

On Tuesday, Kuzhalnadan upped the ante, telling the media: “What has come out is only the tip of the iceberg. Without rendering any service, Veena’s Exalogic pocketed several crores from CMRL. If the account details are made public, Kerala would be shocked. What has happened in this incident is the whitening of black money by floating paper companies.”

As the CPI(M) fights the fire, not just Pinarayi but Veena’s husband and Minister for Public Works Department Muhammed Riyas has also maintained his silence.

Kuzhalnadan, however, has been at the receiving end of state action. At the behest of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, the state Revenue Department has surveyed his Muvattupuzha property for alleged reclamation of paddy land beyond the permitted area. Kuzhalnadan’s resort in the high ranges of Idukki is also under the Revenue Department’s scanner for allegedly violating the Land Assignment Act.

CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said: “Who is going to answer him (Kuzhalnadan)? What challenge is he posing to (the party)? Baseless stories are being spread against the Chief Minister and his family. During the last Assembly elections, too, such stories came out. However, the people gave scant consideration to such campaigns.”

CPI(M) Central Committee member A K Balan, batting for Veena, said the I-T board had unilaterally arrived at a conclusion. “Why should she respond to this issue, which will not stand legal scrutiny?’’ said Balan.

The CPI(M) silence appears to stem from the confidence that this scandal too might not affect its chances, the same as when it returned to power in 2021 despite a term rattled by the gold smuggling scandal.

Pinarayi had maintained a similar stance last year when Swapna Suresh, an accused in the 2020 gold smuggling scandal, had dragged Veena into the controversy. Neither he nor his daughter had sought any legal action against Suresh as retaliation, nor had the CM sought out the media during the row. Pinarayi, who used to brief the media daily during the Covid-19 pandemic and shape the political narratives on its sidelines, has in fact not spoken to the media since early February this year.

Observers point out that this silence on the part of the CPI(M) and Pinarayi when it comes to allegations against Veena is in stark contrast to how the party and the government have handled political detractors in the past. Recent years have seen several people being booked for allegedly offensive comments against the CM on social media platforms. Earlier this year, scores of Opposition workers of the Congress and the BJP were taken into custody for waving black flags to protest against the Pinarayi-led government’s policies. This was followed by numerous preventive arrests across Kerala to check black flags at Pinarayi events.

Recently, when a firecracker was hurled at the gate of the CPI(M) state headquarters, several Congress offices in Kerala were vandalised by CPI(M) cadres in retaliation.