CM Vijayan seeks to dispel controversy over his interview, denies any PR firm's involvement

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, facing flak over his controversial interview with a leading daily, on Thursday denied the role of any public relations agency in arranging it as he gave his version of the entire issue.

"Neither me nor my government has a PR agency and I will let you know what happened. The son (Subaramaniom) of a former CPI-M legislator (T.K.Devakumar), whom I know, asked if I could give an interview to the newspaper when I was in Delhi ( 29th September)," Vijayan said.

"Hence I gave time... a woman reporter met me and started to ask questions and I replied. When she asked about Anvar ( Left-backed Independent legislator who has taken up cudgels with Vijayan), I said I have already spoken (on the matter). However, when the interview was published, there was a mention of an incident which I had not spoken about. When the issue was brought to the attention of the daily, their rejoinder came. Normally such things should not have happened and the daily took a very dignified stand and apologised. Neither I nor the state government has paid any money as there is no PR agency," he added.

Asked how there was another person other than the reporter and Subramaniom at the spot, the Chief Minister said: "I don’t know any person or agency... when the interview was going on, a person came into the room and I thought it was from the daily," Vijayan added.

When the media cited the newspaper's rejoinder of the Hindu that they had mentioned they got his interview through a PR agency, Vijayan did not give any unequivocal answer.

To repeated questions if he will take legal action against the daily, he continued to state that the daily had acted in a dignified manner.

When the reporters persisted with the question that he had been contradicting the stand taken by the daily, Vijayan lost his cool, but soon, regained his peace.

This issue has been raging for the past two days when Vijayan, in the interview, purportedly claimed that 150 kg of gold and hawala money worth Rs 123 crore were seized by the police in the last five years from Malappuram district and that these funds were being utilised for anti-state and anti-national purposes.

The national daily later came out with an apology stating that there was a PR agency which fixed the appointment with the Chief Minister and there were two people with it and one of them later had asked them to include this statement also.

However, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan raised this issue, asking what action the government had taken, and then, the opposition Congress leaders and BJP state President K.Surendran asked Vijayan to come clean about the PR agency.

Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan accused Vijayan of telling a blatant lie when he said that a third person came into the room while the interview was going on.

"This is just not possible as the security cover for Vijayan is very high and it’s hilarious to hear Vijayan saying a third person walked into his room when the interview was going on and Vijayan says he thought it was from the daily. Everyone knows that the person who walked into the room was the chief of the PR agency and Vijayan says he did not know who he was," the Congress leader said.

But now with Vijayan contradicting the stand taken by the daily, all eyes are on the Assembly session that begins on Friday as the Congress-led opposition is all set to raise the issue aggressively.