Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan embarked on an eight-day foreign tour of the U.S. and Cuba on Thursday amidst strident criticism from Opposition parties.
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Mr. Vijayan boarded an Emirates flight from the Thiruvananthapuram airport at 4.30 a.m. Senior government officials saw him off. Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal and Speaker A.N. Shamsheer accompanied him.
Mr. Vijayan will inaugurate the regional conference of Loka Kerala Sabha, an assembly of representatives of expatriates from Kerala, at Times Square in New York on June 10. On June 9, Mr. Vijayan will pay homage at the 9/11 memorial in New York and visit the U.N. headquarters. On June 11, he will attend an investors’ meeting and interact with experts from various fields. The same day evening, he will address a public meeting of Malayali emigres at Times Square.
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On June 12, Mr. Vijayan will interact with Martin Raiser, vice-president of the World Bank, South Asia region. On June 13, Mr. Vijayan will visit the Waste Management system in Maryland. On June 14, he will fly to Havana. He will tour Cuba for the next two days before flying back home.
Congress slams ‘junket’
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheeshan said Mr. Vijayan’s foreign tours would yield no tangible benefits for Kerala. The Chief Minister led a Cabinet delegation to Europe ostensibly to study flood mitigation and primary school education with no reciprocal benefit for the State.
Mr. Satheeshan questioned the constitutional sanctity of the Kerala Loka Sabha. The government had made a mockery of the Kerala Assembly, an elected law-making body, by creating a parallel assembly of expatriates. He accused the government of courting wealthy donors to sponsor the New York event. The government had transformed the event into an exclusive fundraiser wherein only well-heeled expatriates had an entry.
BJP calls LKS a hoax
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran called the Loka Kerala Sabha a hoax. The government had splurged public funds on hosting wealthy expatriates in Kerala and abroad. But the extravagant biennial conclaves have brought no investment to Kerala.
Mr. Surendran said the Ministers had gone on a junket when the government was cash trapped. The administration could not even pay for paddy procurement. Farmers were on the verge of suicide. The government had rendered the Kerala Agriculture Debt Commission a paper organisation. Ultimately, the taxpayer would have to pick the tab for the government’s foreign junkets and other extravagances.