Thiruvananthapuram: For a few months now, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had been getting unprecedented television prime time each evening, appearing on Malayalam channels and giving out the statistics of the day’s coronavirus statistics.
With just over two dozen COVID-19-related deaths in the state, Vijayan and his health minister K.K. Shailaja have won applause across India and even internationally.
Vijayan, who leads the Left Democratic Front government, had also been tipped to lead the LDF to a historic second five-year term when his government faces the electorate in 2021.
Series of missteps
A series of missteps over the past few weeks, and an embarrassing case of officials in the chief minister’s office being linked to a shocking gold smuggling case have suddenly put the chief minister on shaky ground.
One of the first controversies was the government’s decision to enter into a contract with US-based Sprinklr for analysis of data related to COVID-19 patients. The Opposition raised serious concerns of data likely being misused by the company, as well as the manner in which state IT secretary M. Shivshankar handed the contract to Sprinklr on his own volition. The CM, however, shielded the officer.
An app that hurt
Walking out of the Sprinklr controversy, the government walked right into another one, by initiating a mobile app to sell liquor from its monopoly outlets managed by the Kerala State Beverages Corporation. The app, named BevQ, was meant to control anticipated crowding at liquor outlets.
The government once more lost face as the app took much longer to develop than expected, and when it was officially launched it was found that there were no major crowds to buy liquor, with the common man’s earnings severely affected by job losses as a result of COVID-19.
Gold smuggling row
The Sprinklr and BevQ missteps have now been dwarfed by the gold smuggling case using diplomatic channels, which has drawn the chief minister’s office into the controversy.
The gold smuggling case involves a former employee of the UAE Consulate in Kerala, Swapna Prabha Suresh, and her accomplices smuggling a large quantity of gold into the state, misusing diplomatic channels.
This week, when a suspicious diplomatic baggage purportedly containing biscuits, noodles and napkins arrived at the airport, customs officials who had been tipped off, opened the baggage after taking permission from India’s federal ministry of external affairs. The baggage revealed as much as 30 kg of gold, concealed in plumbing equipment.
Tightening noose
Suresh has been on the run ever since the case came to light but her accomplice P.S. Sarith has been taken into custody and is being questioned by officials. The case also cast blemish on the chief minister’s office as the CM’s secretary Shivshankar – who had been protected by the CM during the Sprinklr row – was alleged to be a regular visitor to Suresh’s apartment.
Shivshankar was shifted out of the CM’s office, following which he has opted to go on long leave, but the case has blown up on Pinarayi Vijayan’s face.
More trouble ahead
Kerala is one of the few states where India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has not been able to succeed against the Communist Party of India Marxist and the Congress parties. The smuggling case has given the BJP a timely weapon to use against the CPM in Kerala.
The BJP’s national spokesman, Sambit Patra tweeted in Malayalam on Wednesday, showing a combo-picture of Pinarayi Vijayan and Swapna Suresh, captioning it, ‘Gold’.
The federal government’s investigating agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation, the National Investigation Agency and the Customs and Enforcement Directorate are all expected to probe the gold smuggling case, giving major trouble for the LDF in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the state’s early achievements on the Covid front are also slipping, with a spurt in cases in recent days. On Tuesday, there were 272 fresh cases, including as many as 68 who got it through community spreading.
