Modi declines to meet all-party delegation, CM says ‘insult’ to State

Thiruvananthapuram: CPIM-led LDF government in the State Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declined to meet an all-party delegation from the state on the cooperative sector issue and expressed strong resentment with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan dubbing it as an 'insult' to the state.

"The Prime Minister had failed to understand the sentiments of the Kerala Assembly, and this is an insult to the state," Vijayan told reporters here at a hurriedly called press meet.

In view of the development, he said they have cancelled the Delhi visit scheduled for tomorrow.

A special Kerala Assembly session, convened yesterday to discuss the cooperative sector issue after demonetisation, passed a resolution asking the Centre to allow cooperatives also to exchange scrapped notes and accept deposits as done by commercial banks.

It was also decided that an all-party delegation would meet the Prime Minister and Finance Minister on the issue.

Vijayan said "When we sought time to meet Prime Minister, we were told to meet the Finance Minister instead. We then decided there was no need to go to Delhi to meet FM.'

He said he had already met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley a few days ago on the issue.

Attacking Modi, he said the reply showed that the Prime Minister was not prepared to accept the sentiments of the people and the state assembly.

CPI State Secretary Kanam Rajendran said the PM's response showed his 'arrogance'.

Describing Modi as the 'biggest autocrat' in the annals of history, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala of Congress said this attitude was an 'insult' and 'injustice' to the state.

"While Modi has time to go all over the world to meet leaders, he does not seem to keen to meet the representatives of the state," he said.

However, BJP state President Kummanam Rajasekharan said the decision to cancel the Delhi visit, betrayed its "insincerity" to the issue.

The matters relating to cooperatives had to be discussed with the Finance Minister, which the leader of the LDF and UDF have refused.

BJP leaders from the state had met the Finance Minister and brought to his notice the problems being faced by the state's cooperative sector, he added.