Posts Tagged ‘Thiruvananthapuram’
Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 6 (IANS) The Kerala committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) meets here for four days from Tuesday, with its two top state leaders still at loggerheads.
Former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan and party strongman Pinarayi Vijayan continue to be at each other’s throat although publicly they deny the charge.
It will be the first meeting of the Kerala state unit of the CPI-M after the party-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) was narrowly voted out of power in May 2011 assembly elections, and will map out its future course.
But despite the defeat, the CPI-M is the single largest party in the 141-member state assembly with 45 legislators. The Congress, which heads the government, has 38 members in the house.
‘Factionalism has been an issue in our party. By now more or less that phase is over, and overall we feel that our party has been accepted in more segments of the society,’ said Vijayan.
But relations between Achuthanandan and Vijayan are known to be strained. According to party insiders, Achuthanandan’s grip has weakened following the electoral loss.
At the last state party conference, Achuthanandan’s faction controlled three of the 14 district committees. Now it controls only the Ernakulam district committee.
‘Achuthanandan’s faction has been more or less decimated,’ said a CPI-M leader who did not wish to be identified.
To add to Achuthanandan’s woes, he has been named the prime accused in a land transfer case by the state vigilance department.
The case pertains to a piece of land that Achuthanandan allegedly allotted to a relative.
But both the CPI-M’s central leadership and the state unit have come out in support of Achuthanandan in the face of the allegation.
Tags: Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 6 (IANS) On the eve of the state party conferences of the two Communist parties in Kerala, top leaders of both the Left parties engaged in a war of words Monday.
While the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state conference begins here Tuesday, the Communist Party of India (CPI) is holding its state conference at Kollam from Wednesday.
The CPI is angry with the CPI-M for deciding to hold its state conference at the same time as its own.
CPI state secretary C.K. Chandrappan lashed out at the CPI-M, terming as a ‘cheap act’ the party putting up the pictures of US President Barack Obama and top Congress leaders in a picture of the ‘Last Supper’.
‘It was a needless act and one fails to understand why this happened. It was a cheap act and one that should have been avoided,’ Chandrappan told reporters here.
However, the CPI-M top brass has claimed that it was not done by them and they had removed the picture as soon as they learnt it was put up as a hoarding as part of their state conference.
Chandrappan also criticised the ‘grand manner’ in which the CPI-M is holding its conference and said it was being done by an event management company.
Former minister and top CPI-M leader M. Vijaykumar termed Chandrappan’s statement as nothing but abusing them and denied the party had appointed an event management company.
‘It is absurd and we are shocked at hearing him speak things which even our worst adversary the Congress party would not say… This is a suicidal act by him. What should be noted is that he has attacked us and not spoken a word about the Congress,’ said a peeved Vijaykumar.
CPI-M central committee member and top leader M.A. Baby termed the CPI’s utterances as most unfortunate.
Tags: Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 6 (IANS) A court here Monday found five people guilty in a horrendous case in which a teenaged girl who was sexually exploited in 2003 died a year later following complications after delivering a child.
A Central Bureau of Investigation court here, which exonerated one person in what is known as the Kiliroor sex case, will pronounce the sentences on Wednesday.
The case had hogged the headlines since the victim, Shari S.Nair, who was exploited in the guise of being promised roles in films and TV serials, died in 2004. The then leader of opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, had publicly said that there was a VIP involved in the case and if elected, he would order the arrest this individual.
Achuthanandan was in office 2006-2011 but there was no movement forward and the CBI investigations also did not touch on the role of a VIP.
Among those who have been found guilty is Latha Nair, the woman who is alleged to have taken Shari to various places where she was exploited.
The others found guilty are Prasanth, Kochumon, Manoj and Praveen, who informed the court that he is the father of Shari’s daughter, who is now in the custody of the deceased’s parents.
Praveen, in an interview to a TV news channel Monday, said that Shari and he were in love and were planning to get married.
‘I used to visit her home and her parents were well aware of our relations. They were for our relationship, but all of a sudden after Shari’s death, changed their minds. Irrespective of what today’s verdict is going to be, I will approach the family court to get possession of my daughter because I don’t want her to be under the influence of Shari’s parents,’ Praveen said.
Shari’s mother, however, told reporters that all this was baseless.
‘We came to know only in the hospital that Shari was pregnant. He has never come to our home. At no cost will we ever give possession of our granddaughter to him. If any court is going to rule that, all three of us (my husband, the child and myself) of will commit suicide,’ Shari’s mother said.
Shari’s father Surendran told reporters after the verdict that he would appeal against it in the Kerala High Court because the investigations had not gone to the heart of the matter.
‘The CBI never dealt with the death of my daughter. Moreover, the CBI has named only ordinary people who exploited my daughter as the accused. We all know there are many more people who have exploited her and this includes some bigwigs. We also want to know about that’ Surendran said.
Tags: Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram
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Written by admin on 05 February 2012
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 5 (IANS) Kerala’s Marxists are in trouble again — this time over a look alike picture of Jesus Christ’s The Last Supper.
The Congress has hit out at the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) after the CPI-M’s labour wing put up the controversial picture.
It showed US President Barack Obama in the centre of a supposed Last Supper flanked by ‘disciples’ Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, L.K. Advani and Oommen Chandy.
‘They (CPI-M) say they have the highest regards for Christ. But they do all sorts of things which belittle Christ and Christianity,’ Chandy said in Kottayam.
‘The CPI-M should immediately apologise for the poster,’ he said.
Spokesperson of the Synod of Catholic Bishops, Paul Thelekkat, said using The Last Supper to make a political point was wrong.
‘The CPI-M has hurt the sentiments of believers,’ he told reporters.
CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said the party had no role in preparing the posters.
‘This was not done by our party. When our party leaders came to know of this, they went to the place and removed them. It is not our policy to belittle Jesus or Christianity,’ Vijayan said here.
Only last week the Congress condemned the CPI-M for using a Jesus Christ portrait at an exhibition as part of its state conference.’
The painting of Christ was placed along with Communist icons including Che Guevera at an exhibition titled ‘Marx is Correct’.
Christians form 23 percent of the Kerala’s 33 million people.
Tags: Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram
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Written by admin on 04 February 2012
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 4 (IANS) A short film on veteran singer K.J.Yesudas’ achievements will be made by television channel Kairali TV, former education minister M.A.Baby said here Saturday.
Announcing that a musical will be held Feb 12 to honour the veteran singer on his completing a golden jubilee as a singer, Baby told a press conference that the short film on Yesudas would be jointly produced by Kairali TV and Swaralaya, a music reality show.
Yesudas, 71, has sung over 35,000 songs in 14 languages.
‘We know that documentation of the entire history of Yesudas is not an easy task, but we will be failing in our duty if we do not make an attempt. Kairali TV has in its possession lot of visuals of the singer but that is not enough,’ Baby told reporters.
‘We will also ask people to give us the songs sung by Yesudas if they have in a book form because during yesteryears, song books of Yesudas hits were commonly available. This will help us to document all the songs sung by the veteran, as even Yesudas himself does not have a record of how many songs he has rendered,’ added Baby.
For the musical night, the organisers are bringing together singers like P.Susheela, S.Janaki, M.Jayachandran who have sung with Yesudas.
‘We have decided to classify the veteran singer’s career into five decades and from each decade four hit songs will be selected through people’s choice. A total of 20 songs would be sung that day,’ said Thiruvananthapuram Municiapal Corporation Mayor K.Chandrika, who is also heads the organising committee of the musical.
Yesudas has been conferred with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan besides seven national and 17 state film awards.
Tags: Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram
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Written by admin on 03 February 2012
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 3 (IANS) The state unit of the Congress party has condemned the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for using a Jesus Christ portrait at an exhibition here as part of its state conference.
‘We condemn this act of the CPI-M. It is like what Satan did to experiment with Jesus Christ in the desert. This is a blot on the faithful,’ state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala told reporters after a meeting of the party office bearers here Friday.
He was reacting to a painting of Jesus Christ being placed along with that of Communist leaders like Karl Marx, Lenin and Che Guevera at an exhibition titled ‘Marx is correct’, which delves into the history of struggles for social and political emancipation over the centuries.
‘A political party should not have done this. It is not at all correct to use god like this, while there is nothing wrong in putting up pictures of social reformers like Vivekanda and Sree Narayana Guru,’ said Chennithala.
Last month, CPI-M state committee member M.V. Jayarajan at a meeting said that ‘Christian religion is Communism and the leader of Christians, Jesus Christ, is like their party general secretary Prakash Karat.’
When reporters asked why the Congress is upset over the picture, Chennithala said: ‘Who knows, the time is not far when the CPI-M might even put a picture of Indira Gandhi.’
The CPI-M, however, said there is nothing wrong in putting the Christ picture because the objective behind the exhibition was to look at human history in totality.
Christians constitute close to 23 percent of the state population, which stands around 33 million.
Spokesperson of the Synod of Catholic Bishops Paul Thelekkat told IANS what the Marxist party has done is symbolic of what is happening in the party.
‘It appears their icons of history, namely Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and others, can no longer be exhibited as models to the public of India. They are borrowing models acceptable to the general public in India. In that, they are going back to their own ancient roots. Marxism rose from the Judeo-Christian heritage,’ said the senior Catholic priest.
‘The Marxian practise of the class struggle and materialism denying any religious and spiritual dimension have made a suicidal end to communism. They may be returning to Christ and trying to remodel their ideology. Then, it is welcome thing. We need a social system which is more humane than market capitalism,’ said the priest.
Thelekkat added that maybe this can be a tactical action in line with the Marxists’ principle ‘end justifies means’ and fool the people with Christ.
‘Then, it is betrayal of Christ. Then they are making Christ a Marxist which is like the Maoists making Gandhi their icon – a contradiction and foolery. Christ is not a private property of any church, but those who use the name must also be honest and truthful to his message to pray and to love,’ added Thelekkat.
Tags: Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram
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