Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary M.V. Govindan on Tuesday sought to highlight the arrest of four Youth Congress leaders on synthetic drug peddling charges as emblematic of the “rot” in Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s office.

Mr. Govindan told a press conference that the police had “inadvertently” arrested Youth Congress leaders Muhammad Hussien and P.A. Abdul Salam and P. Abbas based on anonymous information without realising their political heft. He alleged that the accused managed Mr. Satheesan’s social media handles, including the dissemination of social media reels lionising the Chief Minister.

He said the videos of Mr. Satheesan fraternising with them in the Chief Minister’s Office and also visiting their houses had gone viral on social media. “There is official footage of one of them accompanying Indian Union Muslim League leader and Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty to the Assembly,” he added.

Mr. Govindan accused Mr. Satheesan of using the government’s heft to persuade corporate owners of social media platforms, including META, to erase posts critical of the “Chief Minister’s proximity and obvious familiarity with narcotic peddlers” from the digital domain.“ “Mr. Satheesan has borrowed a page from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s playbook for stifling domestic criticism,” he added.

Ceding power

He said the UDF government had set a constitutionally ill-advised precedent by seeking the mediation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Rajeev Chandrasekhar to commandeer Central forces, including the Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force, to search for fishers who went missing off the coast of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam recently.

“The government has ceded its self-determining executive power to the ruling party at the Centre, using the disaster that struck Kerala’s coast as a pretext to build bridges with the BJP,” he added.

False claim

Mr. Govindan accused Mr. Satheesan of lying, claiming that the UDF would do away with the “legal constraint” that prevents administrations from disbursing relief to the families of persons missing in the aftermath of natural calamities.

The Left Democratic Front government had waived the restriction to disburse ₹22 lakh each to 142 fisher families who had lost their breadwinners to the sea, including to the 33 fishers whose bodies could not be recovered, during the 2016-17 Okhi cyclone. “The LDF gave the victims’ families jobs, built them houses and underwrote their children’s education,” he added.

Mr. Govindan accused the UDF of dismantling the search-and-rescue infrastructure, including a voluntary rescue force of 200 fishers and boats, to respond immediately to calamities at sea. He said despairing families had to knock on officials’ doors to mount rescue operations in vain for nearly a week. “Ministers and ruling front MLAs avoided fisher families for days and attempted to offer cold comfort by belatedly knocking at their doors,” he said.

Published - August 11, 2026 08:44 pm IST