Pinarayi dubs 'Irani feeding Amethi workers' in Wayanad as RSS ploy

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday (April 8) quashed a media report which said Union minister Smriti Irani had helped workers belonging to her parliamentary constituency of Amethi, who were stranded in Wayanad amid COVID-19 lockdown.

RSS mouthpiece Organiser had on April 6 carried a report titled ‘Smriti Irani helps starving daily wagers of Amethi stranded in Rahul Gandhi’s Wayanad Constituency’.

The report said the minister’s “timely intervention” had saved 35 migrant workers stranded in Karuvarakundu in Malappuram district of the state which falls under the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.

Hitting back at the report, the Congress said that Rahul Gandhi too was flooded with complaints of food shortage in Amethi and had distributed food and other essentials in his former constituency, as reported by Hindustan Times.

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Vijayan, who met the media after the COVID-19 evaluation meet, said the news was noticed on Tuesday but he had ignored it as “propaganda”.

“When we enquired about it, we found that 41 guest workers (migrant workers) were staying together at a place and the panchayat officials had provided 25 kits to them as they had stated that they would cook for themselves. There was no shortage of food there,” he said.

“Saw a propaganda piece being circulated through Organiser of RSS saying that the timely intervention of Smriti Irani helped the starving workers from Amethi. Just want to make one thing clear. The State has been assisting the guest workers and all other hard-hit people of the state.,” he said.

“There should be no competition or misleading propaganda that might disrupt or undermine the efforts of the state,” he added.

On allegations that the state government was giving more importance to migrant workers, he said they were from the downtrodden section of the community and helping them was the society’s responsibility.

“We feel that our motto, Atithi Devo Bhava, is something which we need to implement in our lives. We need to provide good food, accommodation and necessary medical help,” the chief minister said.

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(With inputs from agencies)