Kerala is witnessing a political spat over MPs and MLAs of the opposition Congress party being quarantined and slapped with cases alleging flouting of social distancing and lockdown norms, while two ministers of the ruling CPM who faced similar allegations were spared.
Close on the heels of two MPs and three MLAs of the Congress being asked by the health officials to remain in 14 days home quarantine citing close contact with COVID infected, a similar allegation raised by Congress against Kerala Local Administration Minister A C Moideen was rejected by the health officials.
A couple of weeks back a police case was slapped against Congress MP Adoor Prakash for attending a function to distribute food kits on the rural parts of Thiruvananthapuram. He was accused of flouting social distancing norms. In the meantime, the Congress alleged that Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran attended a function at a school in the rural parts of the district for collecting contributions from students to CMDRF. But no action was initiated against the minister by the authorities maintaining that the minister did not violate the social distance norms.
These are enough reasons for Congress in Kerala to allege the government of deliberately quarantining Congress MPs and MLAs accusing them of flouting the social distancing and lockdown norms. Congress also stepped up the demand to quarantine Local Administration minister citing that two persons among those interacted by the minister were tested COVID positive.
Chief Minister Pinarayai Vijayan even accused the opposition of staging a political drama by going to border areas where people from other states are coming in. Congress MPs T N Prathapan, V K Sreekandan and Ramya Haridas and MLAs Shafi Parambil and Anil Akkara have visited the Kerala - Tamilnadu border at Walayar in Palakkad.
Meanwhile, in an embarrassment to the CPM, a local leader of the party in Kasargod got infected after he along with his wife, who is a local body representative, went to the Talapady border to collect a person who came from Maharashtra and dropped him at his house. There were even allegations that the person from Maharashtra, who was also later tested COVID-19 positive, did not formally register for returning to the state and the CPM local leader facilitated his entry even as the Kerala government was insisting that only those who make advance registration would be allowed to enter the state in order to ensure proper quarantining. The CPM leader, his wife and two children were infected later.