Kerala

Wayanad (Kerala): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday stuck to his stand that the DYFI workers had saved the lives of Youth Congress activists who waved black flags at him by pushing them out of the way of his cavalcade and said that such actions should be praised. Vijayan, at a press briefing here, also questioned how praising such life-saving acts can be construed as encouragement for carrying out assaults. The chief minister was responding to reporters' reference to the remarks, made a day ago, by Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan that admiring the DYFI workers' actions and asking them to continue the same in the future amounts to "instigating a riot". The LoP had also called Vijayan a criminal, an accusation to which the chief minister responded that they (opposition) are always carrying out personal attacks and abuses in an attempt to suppress the other side by force. Vijayan reiterated what he said on Tuesday that he was sitting in front of the bus and saw the workers of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) -- the youth wing of CPI(M) pushing the Youth Congress activists out of harm's way in Kannur district of the state on Monday. At the same time, he also said that he did not see what happened subsequently when reporters pointed out that police have lodged an attempted murder case against the CPI(M) workers in connection with that incident. Vijayan also alleged that the Youth Congress activists were probably carrying out such demonstrations to divert attention from the recent allegations against some of its members regarding forging of election ID cards. "No other reason is visible for such demonstrations," he claimed. Police have registered a case and launched a probe in connecti ...