Advaid GRabout 4 months ago
How the opposition in Kerala led by Congress is trying to derail the efforts of the Kerala Govt during the #Covid19 crisis. Let’s go back in History because the Malayalam News Channels won’t.
1) On January 30th, Kerala health minister KK Shailaja held an extraordinary press conference at Thrissur, at 1:30 am. Around 25 reporters were present at the Medical College Hospital in Thrissur, when she briefed them about the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in India. For 42 days after that late night media briefing, KK Shailaja briefed reporters on a daily basis about the government’s preparedness, as well as the action taken to keep the pandemic at bay.
On March 11th, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala’ called KK Shailaja a media maniac. On the next day, she even folded her hands in the Kerala Assembly (everyone might remember that) and begged the opposition to not politicize the issue. Opposition MLAs publicly booed at health minister instead. Then, CM Pinarayi Vijayan took the baton over of holding Press Meets from March 13th.
2) Upon the second arrival of the virus in state, the second wave which began on March 08th with the arrival of the Ranni family, the government started giving out guidelines for social distancing in Pathanamthitta Dist, Kottayam Dist and Punalur. Chennithala condemned it by saying it will only help in increasing the fear among people and such steps need to be rolled back.
3) While presenting a motion in the assembly on March 13th, Deputy opposition leader IUML’s Dr. MK Muneer said in the Kerala assembly that “Indians have a special and a tough immune system, because we live amidst our filth and pollution.” Turns out, he was citing an article from a former SwarajyaMag (pro RSS) writer. (Sandeepan Deb’s article in LiveMint)
4) On March 13th, Ramesh Chennithala demanded that Kerala adopt USA’s mitigation method instead of the current model in the Kerala assembly and made the same post in Facebook. After 8 days, he deleted the Facebook post and asked the state to go into a full lockdown.
5) On March 22nd, Chennithala demanded that Kerala should follow Rajasthan’s model to tackle COVID.
Today as i write this, Rajasthan is the 4th most affected state in India after Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu. 1169 cases and 11 deaths.
6) When finance minister Thomas Isaac announced a 20000 crore relief package, Opposition MLAs VT Balram’s and VD Satheeshan’s first reaction was to create a misconception about the package and instill fear among the public by making baseless claims.
7) Days later when thousands of migrant labourers took to the streets in Payippad, Kottayam upon a misinformation about a train to North India, PC Vishnunath, an ex UDF MLA, publicly lied in twitter that Kerala police used force to disperse the crowd.
8) When the CM held an online conference with various representatives of different countries to learn what can be done regarding the non resident Keralites, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran made derogatory statements, claiming that only the Rich NRI’s were there in the conference. Next day in the press meet, CM listed out every name who took part in the online conference.
9) When the CM gave a fitting reply to Mullappally Ramachandran, Shahanas Palakkal, one of the state secretaries of Youth Congress made casteist slurs against Pinarayi Vijayan, indirectly referring to the Ezhava Caste.
10) On April 5th, Ramesh Chennithala who called the health minister a media maniac, termed the CM’ press meets as PR gimmicks. Meanwhile TheNewsMinute made an article on how the Press meets of Pinarayi Vijayan were getting the highest TRP ratings.
From April 7th, Chennithala started getting time slots in every news channels and conducting phone in programs. First to do was Mathrubhumi News.
11) A video of Ramesh Chennithala calling few people (NRI’s was the claim?) became a viral troll, and Chennithala said that Online Cyber Goondas are mocking him.
12) On April 10th, Chennithala and opposition MLA KS Sabarinathan demanded transparency in a fully disclosed agreement signed between the government and Sprinklr. KM Shaji, another IUML MLA from the opposition made false claims against the CMDRF and later refuted it. He also admitted that whatever the crisis is, the opposition will continue to politicise it.
13) Upon flattening the curve and partial lifting of lockdown restrictions in some districts CM Pinarayi Vijayan announced that press briefings will be now done every alternate day instead of the daily ones. After this, among the people who said that they’re finally relieved of the 6 pm PR stunts include opposition MLAs VT Balram, KS Shabarinathan, Youth Congress state secretary and MLA Shafi Parambil and Kozhikode DCC President T Siddique.
This is the story till now. So after few years, when Manoroma or Mathrubhumi tells you made up stories about how Kerala’s opposition stood with Kerala’s government during the COVID crisis, remember that not only they didn’t stand with the government but also constantly tried to push the state to great dangers.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/100042968112576/posts/220711832704419/
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