Ramesh Chennithala, K Muraleedharan slam CM Pinarayi Vijayan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and Congress MLA K. Muraleedharan have come down heavily on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for asking the mediapersons to get out of the venue where a peace meeting with BJP-RSS leaders was  held on Monday. The meeting  was held at Mascot Hotel in the wake of the clashes between CPM and BJP-RSS  workers in the city in the last few days. Mr Vijayan entered the venue only after the mediamen were sent out from the room. Mr  Chennithala said it was hilarious that Mr Vijayan was initiating peace talks after sending his own party members to trigger violence. 

He claimed that the CPM and the BJP were hand in glove in  keeping away  the media. “The people who make bombs will not  understand the relevance of a hunger strike. Earlier too, the CM had kept the media out of the peace talks,” he said.Mr Chennithala and Mr Muraleedharan were speaking at the special prayer meeting held at Indira Bhavan  against the political  violence in the state. Mr Muraleedharan said the  "double-hearted" Vijayan had lost his courage following the widespread violence in the state. His knees had bent after the  Governor summoned him and the DGP, he added.

BJP state general secretary K. Surendran, in a   Facebook post, criticised the chief minister for his rude behaviour to  the media. “The cultural leaders  would have returned their awards (not the prize money) in protest if such behaviour came from a CM in any  northern states,” said  Mr Surendran. He also took a  dig at  the reporters who silently got out of the meeting hall.  Comparing it to what happened during the  Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975, he said  “99 percent of the journalists crawled when they were asked to bend.”