ED raids politically motivated to bully Pinarayi Vijayan, says CPI-M (Lead)

New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) CPI-M General Secretary M.A. Baby and senior party leader Brinda Karat on Thursday criticised the raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the homes and offices of party leaders, including former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in Kerala, terming them “politically motivated”.

“That is how the Enforcement Directorate (ED) behaves. They have carried out raids in nearly a dozen places,” Baby said.

Responding to questions on the alleged attack by CPI-M activists on the ED team, he said: “In one case, some untoward things had happened. We have to find out how this happened.”

Urging an investigation in this regard, he said: “It is not CPI-M’s approach to have a violent response to this kind of situation. We also have to find out what exactly happened.”

Karat came down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for conducting raids at former Kerala CM Vijayan’s premises and then portraying public anger and indignation as a “planned assault” by his supporters.

Talking to IANS, Karat said the purpose of the raids was to “bully, intimidate, and humiliate a senior opposition leader like Pinarayi Vijayan”.

“The raids naturally triggered spontaneous protests across Kerala and even in other parts of the country. Not only CPI-M leaders but leaders from other political parties also described the ED action as a blatant, politically motivated attack,” she added.

On the alleged attack on an ED officer’s vehicle by protesters outside the residence of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram, Karat said that when such an incident happens to a leader who enjoys widespread respect and public support, “protests are bound to occur”.

She stressed that the demonstrations were spontaneous and not pre-planned. “If it had been a pre-planned attack, ED teams across Kerala would have faced similar incidents. Precisely because it was a spontaneous display of protest by young people, this incident happened,” she said.

Karat also stated that describing the incident as a planned conspiracy was misleading on the part of the ED. She also hit out at the state’s ruling Congress for “demeaning and undermining” the CPI-M leadership in the state, adding that similar criticism applied to some statements made by Congress leaders in Kerala.

“The BJP at the Centre and the Congress in Kerala are trying to demean the CPI-M leadership,” she alleged.

Moreover, she asserted: “CPI-M has faced many challenges in the past and would not bow to such cheap tactics which they are trying to use against us.”

Following the ED raids, the CPI-M cadre and leaders, including Baby and Brinda Karat, hit the streets in the national capital on Wednesday to demonstrate against the illegal crackdown and were subsequently detained by Delhi Police. They claimed that the raids were politically motivated and the agency was being misused by the ruling dispensation to unfairly target the Left leadership in the state.

The raids at Vijayan’s residence also ignited a war of words between the CPI-M and the Congress.

Following the ED searches, Vijayan had remarked that “Rahul Gandhi would now be happy”, referring to repeated questions raised by the Congress leader over why no action had been taken against him by the ED in the CMRL-Exalogic financial transactions case.

–IANS

cg/vd