New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) Communist Party of India (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat on Thursday came down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for conducting raids at former Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s premises and then portraying public anger and indignation as a “planned assault” by his supporters.

She also hit out at the state’s ruling Congress for “demeaning and undermining” the CPI-M leadership in the state.

Speaking to IANS, Karat contended that the protests against ED raids were spontaneous and reflected the outpouring and outburst of people, but this was rather projected by the Central agency as a planned attack on its team.

“Had it been a plot to attack the ED team, people would have erupted in protests all across the state where raids happened,” she said, seeking to corroborate her charge.

She also said that the ED raids on the residence and offices of veteran CPI-M leader Vijayan were a blatantly politically motivated act intended to bully, intimidate, and humiliate a leader of the Opposition of his stature. She also claimed that the cases have been fabricated against his daughter.

Following the ED raids, the CPM cadre and leaders, including Brinda Karat, hit the streets in the national capital on Wednesday to demonstrate against the illegal crackdown and were subsequently detained by Delhi Police. They claimed that the raids were politically motivated and the agency was being misused by the ruling dispensation to unfairly target the Left leadership in the state.

Karat, further speaking to IANS on violent protests in Kerala, said that Vijayan is a popular, highly respected and loved leader, and any motivated attempt to unfairly target him would result in public anger.

She said that it was completely misleading on the part of the ED to call the spontaneous protest a planned attack on its team.

“The ED is trying to portray this as a planned attack on its teams, which it was not. If it had been planned, then ED teams across Kerala would have faced similar incidents. The fact that this did not happen clearly shows that it was a spontaneous expression of protest by young people,” she stated.

The raids at Vijayan’s residence also ignited a war of words between the CPI-M and the Congress.

Following the ED searches, Vijayan had remarked that “Rahul Gandhi would now be happy”, referring to repeated questions raised by the Congress leader over why no action had been taken against him by the ED in the CMRL-Exalogic financial transactions case.

Responding to this, Brinda Karat said that the recent statement by Congress leaders shows that they are in cahoots with the BJP’s central leadership.

“They are acting in collusion to undermine and demean the leadership of the CPI-M. This will not succeed,” she remarked while asserting that the party, having faced challenges before, will never bow to such cheap tactics.

–IANS

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