The Congress has criticized the police recommendation to expel from Kerala’s Kannur district a local Youth Congress leader who had raised slogans against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on a plane. The Kannur city police recommended to the district executive magistrate that Farzeen Majeed is expelled from the district and that the severe Kerala Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act (KAAPA) be applied.
Majeed had raised anti-Vijayan slogans on board an Indigo flight shortly after it landed in Thiruvananthapuram on June 14. Majeed and another Congress worker had been arrested on attempted murder charges, but the High Court granted them bail.
Later, K S Sabarinadhan, the state vice-president of the Youth Congress and a former legislator, was arrested on conspiracy charges based on a WhatsApp message about protesting against Vijayan amid new allegations against the Chief Minister related to the gold smuggling scandal. On the move to expel Majeed, Congress leader V D Satheesan said, ‘Vijayan should remember that this is not Russia under Stalin’.
12 of the 19 cases filed against the YC leader are related to agitations that violated Covid-19 protocols. So, why is the government hesitant to use KAAPA against SFI state general secretary P M Arsho, who is facing 40 criminal charges, including attempted murder and insulting women’s modesty? ‘ Why is the government not ready to arrest the goons who roam free in Kerala?’, he enquired.
The decision to slap KAAPA on a Youth Congress worker involved in a political protest comes on the heels of police arresting Opposition party leaders and workers in Kerala hours before Vijayan’s public functions.
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