Thiruvananthapuram | The opposition Congress in Kerala on Tuesday took a dig at CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, asking whether his remarks accusing the BJP-ruled Centre of media manipulation were also applicable to his party comrade and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The Congress also contended that Yechury appeared to be "blissfully unaware" that Vijayan was also allegedly involved in media manipulation.
The criticism comes in the wake of the police action against a woman journalist of a leading Malayalam news channel in connection with an alleged fake exam result of the state secretary of SFI, the student wing of CPI(M).
In the wake of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's claim that the Indian government threatened to shut down the micro-blogging platform unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts during the farmers' protest, Yechury hit out at the Centre by saying that the media was being manipulated in an "outrageous manner".
"Dissent is intimidated, journalists threatened, abused and jailed on false pretext. No amount of denial by the Modi government can obfuscate the truth of doctoring media content," he said in a tweet.
Reacting to it, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president and MP K Sudhakaran said that Yechury appeared to be blissfully unaware that Vijayan was also involved in media manipulation.
"@SitaramYechury seems to be blissfully unaware that his comrade @pinarayivijayan is also involved in media manipulation. The irony of conveniently turning a blind eye to the wrongdoings in their own backyard is truly astonishing," Sudhakaran tweeted.
His party colleague and Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan also took a dig at the CPI(M) general secretary, asking whether his remarks were applicable to Vijayan and his government as well.
"Mr.Yechury, is this applicable to Com.Pinarayi and his government too #CPMterror#FreedomOfPress," Satheesan tweeted.
The Congress leaders' tweets are in reference to the booking of the journalist in a conspiracy and defamation case on a complaint by SFI state secretary P M Arsho.
Ever since the booking of the journalist, the Congress and the UDF opposition led by it in the state have slammed Vijayan and his government for allegedly trying to interfere with press freedom.
A case was registered by police under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code such as Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 465 (forgery) and 500 (defamation) among others on June 9 against five persons, including the journalist.
A controversy erupted on June 6 after KSU had raised an allegation showing a mark list in which Arsho, who is also a student of Maharaja's College in Ernakulam, had "passed" even though he did not attend any exam.
Later, the college clarified that his name was seen among another batch's result and clarified it as a technical error.
"A fake result was published in March 2023 in which the complainant has passed an exam which he did not even register and the same was circulated through social media on June 6 with an intention to tarnish the image of the complainant and SFI," the FIR read.
Arsho had alleged that there was a conspiracy behind the incident.