Kochi | The CPI(M) on Tuesday intensified its attack on Keralam Chief Minister V D Satheesan over his chartered flight trip to rain-hit Malappuram and alleged sponsored foreign trips of ministers, with senior party leader P Rajeev accusing the Congress-led UDF government of becoming one "of corporates and capitalists".
Rajeev, a CPI(M) Central Committee member, alleged that Satheesan was concealing the details of the sponsor who paid for the chartered aircraft used for his visit to Malappuram.
"The chief minister's journeys are extremely mysterious. He is hiding who sponsored the chartered flight," Rajeev alleged while talking to the media here.
He also claimed that the "sponsor" of a visit to Mangaluru undertaken by Satheesan before becoming CM was yet to be disclosed.
Taking an apparent dig at ministers Ramesh Chennithala (Home) and O J Janeesh (Sports) over their recent foreign visits, Rajeev said that while people were suffering without electricity, those ruling Keralam were behaving like Emperor Nero, who is said to have played music while Rome burned, and asking why they should not enjoy their private moments.
"This government is functioning as a sponsored programme. This is not a government of the people. It has become a government that fully accepts the generosity of corporates and capitalists and works for them," he alleged.
The recent US trip of Chennithala was also sponsored, Rajeev alleged adding that another state minister was using a luxury car, referring to the row over the use of Range Rover as official vehicle by LSGD Minister K M Shaji.
"The ministers in this government are indulging in abuse of power," he alleged.
The remarks came amid a controversy over Satheesan's use of a chartered aircraft on Monday to travel to Karipur airport in Malappuram district to take stocks of the situation in rain-affected areas there.
According to the CMO, the flight did not involve any expenditure from the state exchequer. It said the journey was necessitated by the emergency situation and that the government had not renewed the contract for the helicopter it had been using.
The use of the aircraft had earlier drawn criticism from SFI, the student outfit of the CPI(M), which alleged that the trip was sponsored and sought to know the identity of the sponsor.
Rallying against opposition criticism over UDF ministers' foreign trips, KPCC president and state minister Sunny Joseph on Monday said the travel had not cost the Kerala government anything, while Janeesh said the Cabinet members were entitled to overseas travel as long as they did not compromise their official duties or use taxpayers' money.
Defending his personal breaks, Janeesh had said he was 37 and did not intend to "act old or rigid", adding that he would occasionally take short personal trips.
LDF convenor and former minister T P Ramakrishnan, however, had questioned whether ministers could justify foreign trips by saying they were not undertaken at the government's expense.