Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Wednesday dismissed reports that he had refused to meet leaders of the NSS, an organisation of the Nair community in the state that has maintained a hard stand against him since before he became the CM.
Satheesan clarified that he had not denied a meeting appointment to NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair and said reports claiming otherwise were incorrect.
"He had called my private secretary when my phone was not with me amid the preparations for the budget. When I was informed, I called him back, and we spoke cordially. He said we should meet as they had some things to tell me, and I assured him that we would. I told him we would meet," the CM told reporters at a press conference here.
Satheesan said that during that week he was busy with budget work and had not gone anywhere.
"After the budget presentation, I saw some news reports claiming that he had said at an event that I did not give him an appointment. But I did not see him make such comments," Satheesan said.
His response came amid reports of differences between him and the Nair Service Society, and that leaders of the organisation had been denied an appointment while the CM met representatives of the Hindu Aikya Vedi.
"A former minister was heard saying that BJP leaders were coming in and out of the CM's office. Some leaders of the Hindu Aikya Vedi wished to meet me. A couple of them have been very outspoken against me. Can I say I will not meet them? I gave them an appointment and met them during normal public dealing hours," Satheesan said.
"They met me and submitted a request. I heard what they had to say. On the previous day, various organisations that had protested against us came to meet me, and I heard their concerns as well," he added.
He said that he was not the CM of the Congress and the UDF alone, but the chief minister of Kerala, and that it would be wrong to refuse to meet anyone who sought an appointment with him.
Satheesan said that even Thushar Vellappally, the national president of BJP ally Bharath Dharma Jana Sena and son of SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan, had come to his residence in Aluva to meet him.
"Can I say that Thushar Vellappally should not come to see me? I cannot say that to anyone who wants to meet me. Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar came to my office and discussed several issues concerning his constituency," he said.
"Should I not meet people's representatives and leaders of political, religious and community organisations? They all have matters relating to their respective organisations, sectors and communities to discuss," he added.
Satheesan said it was former minister P A Mohamed Riyas who had claimed that BJP leaders were coming in and out of his office, and asserted that he was not meeting anyone in secret.
"My reply to him is that I am not meeting anyone secretly, unlike (the former CM) Pinarayi Vijayan, who met RSS leaders at Muscat Hotel after travelling in another car to avoid the media. I met the Hindu Aikya Vedi representatives at a time when many others had also come to meet me. I think it becomes news only when I refuse to meet them," he contended.
