Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 30 (IANS): The ruling CPI(M), which has came under attack ever since Kerala chief secretary V. P. Joy went ga-ga over Gujarat's dashboard system of e governance, said "there is nothing wrong to see and learn things".
The Kerala CPI(M)'s stand is just the opposite to what it has been practicing over the years.
According to sources, the visit of Joy to Gujarat is based on a meeting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with Vijayan recently in Delhi, where the former asked the latter to send a delegation to study the 'dashboard system' of e-governance being implemented in the Prime Minister's home state.
However, tongues have started wagging and continues very strongly ever since news surfaced about the quick two-day visit of Joy to Gujarat.
In 2013, when the then Labour Minister an engineer-turned-politician Shibhu Baby John visited Gujarat to study issues, the then leader of opposition and CPI-M veteran V.S. Achuthanandan had went hammer and tongs against it.
Irked over it, another CPI-M veteran and former State Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had demanded that the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy should immediately ask John and his team to cut-short their visit and return to the state.
Moreover, the then CPI-M Kannur district secretary P. Sasi (who last week took over as the new political secretary of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan), slammed the why their then Kannur Lok Sabha member A.P. Abdullakutty was suspended from the party in 2008 for praising Modi and his works in Gujarat, as chief minister.
Sasi had said that time, "It's in no way to accept such praises being showered on one of the most hated politician (Modi) in the country."
In 209, Abdullakutty quit the CPI-M and became a legislator and in 2019, joined the BJP and is their national vice-president.
Reacting to Joy's visit, Abdullakutty said he wishes to give a hug and a kiss to Vijayan for deciding to send Joy to Gujarat.
M.P. Joseph, then a top bureaucrat and the Labour secretary under Minister John said time and again there is dilution in what the CPI-M speaks and does.
"Gone are the days of their ideology, today they are driven, by power, money and violence and everything else is secondary. It's indeed hilarious to see and hear what was being said about the dashboard visit. This is nothing and it's just like seeing everything on your car dashboard. Maybe there are other reasons for this sudden visit," said Joseph.
Senior Congress Lok Sabha member K. Muraleedharan said, "The situation today is Vijayan will go to any extent and don't be surprised, he will even say he is willing to implement the Uniform Civil Code to please Modi."
The Congress party top brass went a step further and said "the time is not far when Vijayan might leave for Delhi to study about the governance model of Prime Minister Modi".