Pinarayi Vijayan slams Kerala Congress chief for remark on DGP Loknath Behara, says he won't ‘dance to whims and fancies’ of Narendra Modi

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that he was not a person to dance to the “whims and fancies” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hit out at the Congress state president who had alleged that IPS officer Loknath Behara was made Kerala police chief by the Left government at Modi’s behest. Mullappally Ramachandran, Congress’ Kerala chief, had on Saturday alleged that Behara was appointed state DGP at the behest of Modi after he as senior National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer gave him and BJP president Amit Shah a “clean chit” in Gujarat riots and Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter cases. [caption id=“attachment_5600971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. News18[/caption] Vijayan said those knowing him are aware that he was not a person to dance to the “whims and fancies” of the PM. “Anyone who knows me will never believe that I am a person who will act according to the whims and fancies of Modi. LDF is not here to sign along Modi’s dotted lines,” the Chief Minister said. Ramachandran, who had served as Minister of State for Home Affairs for five years in the Manmohan Singh cabinet in 2009, made the allegation at a meeting of the Youth League in Vatkara in Kozhikode district. Lashing out at the Congress unit chief, Vijayan said if Ramachandran had come across such an issue, he should have informed the then home minister P Chidambaram. “Why didn’t he inform Chidambaram? Why was he waiting for last two and a half years? Why didn’t he take necessary action when he was in power?” Vijayan asked. Vijayan also said the UPA was in power for ten years. Ramachandran was a minister from 2009, the chief minister said. “He had five years. Why were they silent for all those years? His sincerity is under clouds of doubt. Why did he hide this information. His words can’t be trusted,” he said. Vijayan also said if someone was trying to protect Modi and Shah, they should have taken it up and acted accordingly. Ramachandran had said as a Union minister for five years, he had gone through several files. This included “those relating to the biggest riots the country has seen– the Gujarat violence, Ishrat Jahan case (relating to the “encounter” killing of a 19-year-old woman and three others on the outskirts of Ahmedabad) and lots of other cases in which Modi, (who was then Gujarat chief minister) and Amit Shah, were co-accused,” he said. Modi was accused of asking police to go soft on rioters targeting the Muslims. In 2012, he was cleared of complicity in the violence by a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which had questioned him for over 9 hours in the post-Godhra Gulberg society massacre case. Ramachandran had alleged that Behara was one of the officers of the NIA, who had prepared the report “giving clean chit” to Modi and Shah. The Congress leader had said the report had “amused all of us.” As a quid pro quo, Ramachandran alleged, that Behara was appointed Kerala DGP on the directions of the Prime Minister. Taking a dig at Vijayan, Ramachandran had alleged that Modi directed his “new found companion” to appoint Behara as DGP and he had obliged.