Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday lambasted the Kerala government for the action taken against a TV reporter, saying that hypocrisy and contradiction formed the basis of communist ideology.
Ever since the Kerala Police registered an FIR against a TV woman reporter for a news article and the response from the CPI(M) state secretary M.V.Govindan, the CPI(M)-led Pinarayi Vijayan government has come under fire.
"There was an emotional reaction by the CPI(M) on the BBC documentary and it spoke volumes on freedom of speech, but when a similar incident gets reported here, the same freedom of speech becomes a Marxian concept and for the Marxist and the government, here it's built on edifice of hypocrisy and lies," said Chandrasekhar.
Trouble for the Vijayan government started last week when the state police department "arraigned" Akhila Nandakumar of leading Malayalam TV channel Asianet News as one of the five accused in a complaint filed by ASFI state secretary P.M. Arsho.
The Ernakulam police in Kerala registered a case against five people -- Prof Vinod Kumar of Maharajas College, Principal of the college Dr V.S. Joy, state president of Congress student body, KSU Alosiouis Xavier and College unit president of KSU, C.A. Faisal and the Chief reporter of Asianet news, Akhila Nandakumar.Arsho complained that Akhila Nandakumar had filed a story stating that he had passed an examination which he had not taken, and that it was intended to defame him.
As soon as this report surfaced, CPI(M) Kerala state secretary and senior MLA M.V. Govindan said the TV news report was based on a conspiracy and that the government would take action against the media if it files such stories either against the government or the SFI and will file more cases again if it happens.
On Tuesday, the leading giants of vernacular newspapers here came out with strong editorials slamming Govindan and the way the ruling CPI(M) is trying to gag the media.Sensing the mood, Govindan mellowed down and accused the media of twisting his statements.
Veteran CPI(M) central committee member and Left Democratic Front convenor E.P.Jayarajan also tried to play down the registering of an FIR against the TV reporter saying the lady need not worry.
As per Arsho, he had not applied for the third semester examination of the 2021-22 batch of the postgraduate programme in Archeology and Material Cultural Studies and hence there was no possibility of him passing the examination.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Student Union (KSU), the pro-Congress student body, had claimed that the college website document mentioned that Arsho had passed the examination despite scoring zero.