No conflict of interest in taking money from company, says party.
New Delhi
For the past ten days, political Kerala has been discussing the controversy surrounding payments to the tune of Rs1.72 crores by a mining company to the daughter of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who owns a tech company without any concrete outcome.
Though the state CPM in an unusual move had issued a statement giving a clean chit to Veena as well as the owners of the company Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), the Chief Minister’s silence on the part of his daughter’s dealings has been the most intriguing.
More intriguingly, the state government has, at the behest of local CPM leaders, initiated revenue and vigilance proceedings against a Congress MLA who attempted to raise the pay-off issue in the state Assembly. Attempts by Mathew Kuzhalnadan to raise the issue of Veena in the Assembly on the last day of its session last week was shot down by the Speaker. Now the revenue department has reopened a land deal involving Kuzhalnadan’s ancestral property. This is when the government is totally silent on a false affidavit filed by Mohammed Riyas to the Election Commission without including his wife, Veena’s actual income.
Kuzhalnadan at his press conference had this to say. “My question is not to Veena…As the CPM secretariat has taken over the matter, extending complete support, my question is to them. If the financial transaction between the two (Veena and CMRL) was transparent, why was that amount not disclosed in the affidavit of Riyas. Please explain.”
Interestingly, the revenue department which has acted against Kuzhalnadan at lightning speed is yet to take any such action against P.V. Anwar, independent MLA who is close to CM Vijayan, who is in possession of excess land—19.26 acres—in violation of Kerala Land Reforms Act by which no one can possess land more than 12 acres.
It is said that there are 31.26 acres of land in the name of Anwar, his first wife and their four children. Quoting the findings of the Income Tax Department’s Interim Board for Settlement, a Malayalam daily had reported that the company, Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) had allegedly paid Vijayan’s daughter Veena Rs 1.72 crore from 2017-18 to 2019-20 for providing software solutions. However, the report pointed out that since Veena’s company Exalogic Solutions Private Limited had failed to provide any services to CMRL, the payment was illegal. To begin with, Veena is the daughter of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Her company’s registered address is allegedly C/o Pinarayi Vijayan, AKG Centre which is the headquarters of the CPM in Kerala. Vijayan other than being the Chief Minister also holds important portfolios of IT and Environment. This makes the case against Veena more complicated.
Kerala CPM says there is no conflict of interest in Veena whose father happens to be the Chief Minister of the state and also holding vital portfolios in which the company deals with getting paid for no work provided.
Senior party leaders are taking turns to defend Veena, one even pleading with media persons to “spare the poor girl”.
At his last press conference, state CPM secretary M.V.
Govindan abruptly ended the interaction the moment a reporter raised the question of Veena. Central leadership of the CPM refuses to talk on anything that concerns the Kerala unit. As for Veena, she has not so far questioned the CMRL contention that her company failed to provide any service to it, though CPM leaders insist that Exalogic Solutions did provide all the services to the best satisfaction of the company. No one knows how the party is sure about this.
It is said that Veena started her company in 2016, the year her father became Chief Minister, with a capital of Rs 10 lakhs. Now the channels are playing an interview Veena had given to one of them during an Onam time in 2020-21 where she coyly admits that her company was worth Rs 100 crores or thereabout.
There is definite duplicity on the part of the state as well as the central leadership of the CPM. The party had in the past kept its distance from cases involving children of its leaders. Most notable were the cases involving the sons of former state secretary, the late Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
The party refused to be involved in their cases even when one of the sons was sent to jail in Bangalore. And unlike Veena, Kodiyeri’s sons were very much involved in party work.