Prime Minister Narendra Modi being garlanded during a BJP-organised women's convention 'Sthree Shakthi Modikkoppam' (Empowered Women with Modi), in Thrissur, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
An indirect reference made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the alleged links of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's office with gold smuggling has triggered questions from the Congress camps on why the Centre was not acting against the Kerala CMO.
Addressing a huge gathering at Thrissur in Kerala on Wednesday, Modi said that "everyone knew which office was involved in gold smuggling" - an oblique reference to the Kerala chief minister's office.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K Sudhakaran and opposition leader V D Satheesan asked why the central agencies failed to take effective action even as the Prime Minister said that the involvement of an office in gold smuggling was well known.
Alleging a nexus between the ruling CPM and the BJP, the Congress leaders said that though various central agencies launched a probe into the involvement of the Kerala chief minister's office, the investigations came to a halt just ahead of the 2021 assembly polls. Even as central agencies carried out raids at offices of chief ministers and ministers in many non-BJP ruling states, in Kerala no such actions were initiated, the Congress leaders pointed out.
CPM state secretary M V Govindan said that the Prime Minister was "spreading lies" over the gold smuggling row "as central agencies failed to curb gold smuggling".
Meanwhile, the CPM and Congress leaderships in Kerala rejected Modi's assertion that the BJP would win seats in Kerala in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Modi's hopes of BJP winning seats in Kerala by highlighting 'Modi's guarantees' will not work, they said.
During his speech at Thrissur, one of the most hopeful seats for the BJP in Kerala, Modi highlighted various welfare schemes initiated by his government and termed them as 'Modi's guarantees'.