As the Opposition Congress in Kerala stepped up attack against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the government's deal with a US firm by linking his daughter, Vijayan is trying to put up an emotional defence by listing out a series of personal allegations that he faced over the years.
It is with the political agenda of creating a dent in the popularity being earned by Vijayan with the state's fight against COVID that the Congress even alleged of links of Vijayan's daughter Veena T, who runs an IT firm in Bengaluru, with the US firm Sprinklr that has been engaged by the government for COVID data analysis service.
Vijayan who termed the allegations rubbish said that he was not moved by such personal allegations as he had been faced many such personal allegations planted by his rivals over the years. Bringing out the emotions of a father, Vijayan said that his children's education was also made a controversy by his rivals.
It may be recalled that many of the personal allegations against Vijayan came up when in-fight in the CPM in Kerala was at its peak.
During his routine press briefings on COVID updates over the last few days, Vijayan preferred to maintain a strict silence on the alleged irregularities in the deal with the US firm citing that he was more concerned of the fight against COVID. But when personal allegations started coming up, he is putting up an emotional defence citing the personal allegations.
"Do you remember Kamala International?," Vijayan asked journalists who sought his reaction on opposition's allegations regarding his daughter's link with the US firm. When the alleged corruption pertaining to a deal with Canadian firm SNC Lavalin, while Vijayan was serving as Power Minister in Kerala during the 1990s, came up there were allegations linking a foreign firm Kamala International with him as his wife's name happened to be Kamala.
My children's education was also made controversy," he said recollecting the allegations that while the CPM in Kerala was protesting against self-financing engineering and medical colleges, his daughter secured admission at a self-financing college outside Kerala.
Vijayan also recollected a social media campaign with a picture of a palatial house with the caption that it was his house.
The Kerala vigilance probed the SNC Lavalin allegations did not find any charges against me, he said.
Meanwhile, the Opposition is alleging that Pinarayi was trying to create the impression of a martyr as he got no convincing reply to the allegations pertained to the deal with the US firm, especially with regard to compromising the privacy of health data of nearly two lakh people collected as part of COVID and flouting procedures for entering into a deal with a foreign firm.