The State Police department appears to have committed a political gaffe by registering a case for static breaking out briefly on the sound system when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan spoke at a Congress meeting to condole the death of late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at Ayyankali Hall here on Monday.
The “unconventional” action gave the Congress ample ammunition to assail the government. Satirical memes calling out the “weird step” and mocking the police and government erupted on social media.
Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan rebuked the police move as a preposterous and laughable prosecutorial misstep reminiscent of the “brainless tyranny” of the communist party dictatorships in China and North Korea.
“The microphone, amplifier and speaker are the accused in the imperilling public order case. Please do not make the public die of laughter,” he said.
He said that “a few overzealous loyalists” in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) led by Mr. Vijayan’s political secretary had “hijacked the police” and subverted law enforcement for petty political ends.
The government had taken an authoritarian turn. Earlier, it deemed wearing black a crime and arrested those who sported black shirts or pandemic-era masks of the same colour, he said.
The backlash was striking. Under a deluge of criticism, the police rowed back hastily. They dropped criminal proceedings and returned the impounded devices to the owner of the sound system.
Later, Public Works Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas claimed that Mr. Vijayan ordered the police to withdraw the case.
The function to condole Chandy’s death was fraught with some tension. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran portrayed Chandy as the victim of a slanderous political witch hunt in the twilight of his life.
Soon, Congress workers raised slogans hailing Chandy when Mr. Vijayan took to the podium. Leaders on the dais gesticulated them to remain silent in apparent alarm.
Later, CPI(M) central secretariat member A K. Balan said there seemed something suspicious about the event.
“First, there was sloganeering at a function supposed to be solemn. Then deafening static erupted, drowning the CM’s speech. Everything seemed to fit a pattern,” he said.
The Congress leadership felt that the CPI(M)‘s argument was politically brittle. It aspires to portray the “of-the-wall” police response to the mundane event as emblematic of the government’s lack of empathy and highhandedness in the coming days.
