On the night of June 30 (Thursday), a bike-borne unidentified person reportedly threw a crude bomb at the headquarters of the CPI(M) party in Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram. The incident, which was captured on CCTV camera, sparked a war of words between the ruling party and the Congress, which is the main opposition party in the state.
In the footage shared by news agency ANI, a man on a scooter stop near the AK Gopalan Centre in Thiruvananthapuram and throws an explosive substance at the gate of the building before fleeing the spot. CCTV footage suggests that the person came from the Kunnukuzhy side of the road. But the police suspect the possibility of a team behind the attack.
Kerala | A man on a two-wheeler captured on CCTV hurls a bomb at CPI (M) headquarters, AKG Center, Thiruvananthapuram
— ANI (@ANI) June 30, 2022
(Source: AKG Center CCTV) pic.twitter.com/cfP1zbChb0
Speaking about the incident, CPI(M) central committee member P K Sreemati said, “I was staying on the third floor of the AKG Centre and I heard a deafening sound around 11.30 and saw smoke billowing from the gate. I was really shocked. All democratic forces should condemn such a dastardly attack.”
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) alleged that the Opposition Congress is behind the attack. “The Assembly session is on…Congress and UDF don’t want democratic discussions, they want chaos…”, MA Baby, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member was quoted as saying by ANI.
The Assembly session is on…Congress and UDF don’t want democratic discussions, they want chaos…We hope Congress leadership would ask the state leadership to refrain from such an undemocratic attitude: MA Baby, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member pic.twitter.com/6T4ESVtJ7Z
— ANI (@ANI) June 30, 2022
The former speaker in the legislative assembly, M Vijayakumar, was quoted by The Week as saying, “You just have to watch the circumstances of this attack,” he says. “Just days before, an organised march, led by the senior leadership of Congress, was conducted to AKG Centre. If that march had reached the AKG Centre, what would have happened? Their goal was to destroy the centre. But the timely intervention of the police stopped the attack. What happened now is the continuation of that.”
Party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also said Congress was behind the attack. “It was a well-planned and executed attack,” he said.
Meanwhile, in what could be seen as a retaliatory move, irate CPI(M) workers took out protest rallies at many places and pelted stones at the DCC offices in Kottayam and Kozhikode in the early hours of Friday. Reacting to this, Congress MLA Thiruvanchur Radhakrishnan alleged the attack took place before the eyes of the police. He alleged that the CPI(M) office attack was planned in advance to deflect attention from the gold smuggling case that Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan is involved in. He also said that it was a ploy to impede Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the state.
Notably, Rahul Gandhi arrived in Kerala Friday on a 3-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency, Wayanad.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s office vandalised in Wayanad, Kerala
The incident occurred precisely a week after SFI workers vandalised Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi’s office in Wayanad. The SFI workers marched to Rahul Gandhi’s office, and then entered the office and vandalised it.
Reportedly, the SFI workers are angry over Rahul Gandhi’s alleged silence of the recent Supreme Court order over maintaining eco-sensitive zone.
The Congress party has blamed the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) for the vandalism. SFI is the student wing of the radical left-wing group Popular Front of India (PFI).
Videos posted by Congress workers show that the miscreants entered the office of Rahul Gandhi and clashed with the Congress workers present in the office in Wayanad. In a video posted by Youth Congress on Twitter, the workers of SFI and Congress can be seen fighting with each other. Chairs in the office were broken and Congress workers were beaten.
“The extremism in the left-wing politics of Kerala is out in open. Why is Kerala Government promoting such hooliganism in Kerala? The goon should be identified and put behind the bars,” the youth Congress Twitter account posted along with the video.
