Kochi: The CPM has flayed its ally and former minister K T Jaleel, MLA, for making attempts to shut down a Malayalam daily ‘Madhyamam’ in UAE for publishing reports of Indians succumbing to corona due to poor medical care in the UAE.
Addressing a press conference at Thiruvananthapuram, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that it was not the party policy to impose restrictions on any publications. The party had opposed when the union Information and Broadcasting ministry had refused to renew the licence of Media One TV channel run by Madhyamam citing National security risk a few months back.
The party is not informed by the MLAs when they make correspondences with others
If Jaleel had violated protocol by writing a letter to the UAE ruler, then it was the External Affairs ministry to act against him, Balakrishnan said.
Regarding the ED summoning former state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac on KIFB, he said that it was the intention of the centre to create hurdles on the state government’s developmental plans before the Lok Sabha elections.
BJP has used ED to pull down governments in many states and it was doing the same in
Kerala which would be dealt with politically and legally. The government would discuss with legal experts on how to deal legally.
He expressed thanks to the Congress for protesting against the ED after it summoned Congress president Sonia Gandhi in connection with the National Herald case.
