VS remarks on Sindhu shameful: CM

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Coming down heavily on Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan’s unsavoury remarks on Sindhu Joy, former SFI leader who joined the Congress later, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday said that the Opposition Leader’s remarks were a disgrace to the entire state. He told a news conference here that the Opposition should tender an apology to the people. “Achuthanandan who had been projecting himself as a person who always stood for protecting the interests of women has now passed unsavoury remarks about an young woman. But it is not the first time that VS is insulting womanhood,” he said. Chandy said that Kerala could not forget the number of incidents involving insults to women by VS. But he said that he was interested in hearing the stand of the CPM and its state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. “V S Achuthanandan is leading the election campaign at Piravom. So we are interested in knowing the CPM’s response,” he said. On R Selvaraj’s resignation, the Chief Minister said that the CPM had not responded to the charges levelled by Selvaraj on his resignation. “We were apprehensive of violent protests and law and order problems in the constituency over Selvaraj’s resignation. Normally, a CPM MLA’s resignation would have triggered passions rising high. Anticipating such violence, police had been deployed to avert untoward incidents. But what we witnessed was demonstrations in support of Selvaraj,” he said. Selvaraj was the only CPM MLA who had not received an invitation to the state conference of the party, he said and challenged the CPM leadership and Deshabhimani daily to prove that it was at the Chief Minister’s office that Selvaraj’s resignation letter was prepared. He denied reports that Government chief whip P C George visited him at his residence at 5 a.m. along with Selvaraj the other day. He also said that the UDF would have its own candidate at Neyyattinkara by-election.  Asked whether Selvaraj would be given the ticket, he said that Selvaraj himself had stated that he would not go to the UDF.