Centre not allowing Kerala to improve ties with foreign countries: CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday slammed the Centre for its negative stance towards the state, especially in matters of improving ties of Kerala with foreign countries.

“There are a good number of foreign countries which have good ties with Kerala but the Centre doesn’t allow us the leverage and the freedom to better the existing ties,” said Vijayan.

“Permission was denied to conduct the Abu Dhabi marathon. The attitude of the Centre is that nothing good should happen in Kerala,” added Vijayan.

Then turning his ire towards the Congress and the BJP, he said they both did their best to tarnish the image of the ruling Left at the 2021 Assembly polls.

“But all the smear campaigns fell on deaf ears. The Congress party has never worked for the good of the state. They took the help of the state BJP to approach the Centre which sent numerous central agencies here,” said Vijayan.

He then pointed out that the BJP in Kerala was unable to get a hold because the CPI(M)-led Left is strongly working against it.

“The game plan is to weaken the Left and with that the Congress will come to power and once that happens, the BJP will take over,” added Vijayan.

State Congress president K.Sudhakaran reacted to the Chief Minister's statement and said that till date Vijayan has not spoken a word against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "It’s he who has clandestine relation with the BJP and hence he is being safe-guarded in cases like SNC Lavalin which has been adjourned almost three dozen times in the past several years.