Investment Kerala Global Summit: Opposition UDF to grace occasion

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 18 (PTI) The Congress-led UDF will participate in the Invest Kerala Global Summit to be held at Kochi on February 21 and 22, opposition leader V D Satheesan said on Tuesday.

“The UDF has never adopted an anti-development stance like the CPI(M). The opposition will participate in the summit,” Satheesan said in a release here.

The UDF decision comes amid a controversy triggered by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor praising the left front government in the state for creating an investment-friendly atmosphere in the state in an article published in an English daily.

Several Congress leaders, including Satheesan, had contested Tharoor’s claim quoting government statistics which said nearly three lakh MSMEs had been established in Kerala in the last three years.

In his statement on Tuesday, Satheesan challenged the state government to release the complete list of the enterprises started in the last three years.

“It is ridiculous to make false claims in the name of shops and small establishments started by poor people by taking loans. The state Industries minister should not make a laughing stock of himself,” the opposition leader said.

He said the opposition will extend full support to the government in all its efforts to make Kerala an investment-friendly state.

However, the opposition will question the inflated number of enterprises and the repetition of unrealistic figures, he said.

Satheesan alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Industries Minister P Rajeeve are now trying to create a narrative that the opposition is 'anti-development'.

"There is enough evidence that the CPI(M)’s arrogance, the ego of its leaders and their perverted political mindset had reversed Kerala's development by decades," he charged.

He said the government and the industries department should have compiled the list of enterprises started in three years before making claims.

“Do they think vegetable shops, grocery stores, bakeries, barber shops, ice cream parlours and gyms started in Kerala after the LDF came to power,” he asked.

Satheesan alleged the government should not think that it can always deceive the people of the state as it did during the COVID-19 period with tall claims in the field of healthcare.

According to UDF sources, Satheesan and deputy leader P K Kunhalikutty will attend the Invest Kerala Global Summit being organised by the state government in Kochi. PTI