Pinarayi Vijayan silent on Brahmapuram fire, tweets greetings to Xi Jinping; draws ire

The Kerala chief minister who was silent on the toxic smoke that enveloped Kochi praised Chinese President Xi Jinping on getting re-elected.

ByMuhammed Fazil

Published Mar 14, 2023 | 3:06 PMUpdatedMar 14, 2023 | 3:06 PM

Pinarayi Vijayan Brahmapuram

When the blaze in waste dumping yard in Kochi’s Brahmapuram spewed toxins into the air of the state’s commercial capital, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan maintained a stoic silence.

While being silent on a public health concern of the people of Kerala back home, the chief minister didn’t waste any time in taking to his twitter handle to congratulate China’s President Xi Jingping on his re-election.

The chief minister’s display of priorities has got people’s goat.

Vijayan put out a tweet congratulating Chinese strongman Xi Jingping on his “re-election” as president of the People’s Republic of China and commending him for making the country “a prominent voice in global politics”.

This comes at a time Chinese incursions on Indian territory has become a cause of concern as flagged by internal security experts.

Considering the long-standing fraternal ties that his party — the CPI(M) — has with communist nations and leaders, this was not something unexpected, but Malayalis found it a bit galling that he had not a word of sympathy for the breathless residents of a city enveloped in thick smoke.

Also read: A look at how toxic the air in Kochi really is

And they were scathing in their criticism. “Comrade, people are breathless here,” wrote one Twitter user.

“Dear sir, Whoever wins or fails in China is not a concern for us. If proper steps are not taken, Kochi will witness a massive disaster just like the Covid pandemic,” wrote another user.

“I’m really feeling sad. While a city is struggling to breathe, instead of addressing that, you are praising the head of a country which is looking for the right opportunity to attack us. An Indian can never think of something like this,“ yet another replied to him on Twitter.

There were also many people who pointed out that China is not actually a democratic country as it follows a single-party system so the “re-election” was kind of meaningless.

“China is a different kind of republic that has a voters list made by one person who made others fearful of contesting against him…,” wrote a person.

A Twitter user also took a dig at the proposed SilverLine rail of Kerala which is yet to get the approval of the Centre.

“Sir, please bring the SilverLine in a war-footed method. We Kochi people want to travel to Thiruvananthapuram or Kasaragod to breathe fresh air”.

Things get political

Among those who responded to the chief minister’s tweet was Sreejith Panickar, a somewhat right-leaning political analyst.

“What revolution? His treatment of Muslims? Since 2014, the Uyghur Muslims are being persecuted in Xi’s China. More than 15000 mosques are razed down. Shameful that you say China has prominent voice in global politics. Don’t you know whose voices they want to suppress? Loyalties!”.

This reply was significant because Panicker is not known for raising his voice against the inequalities faced by the minorities.

Not surprisingly, things rapidly got political, with one twitter user wondering: “Have you condemned Sangh Parivar and its affiliated bodies for the persecution of Indian Muslims? If your concern for Muslims is so high, first talk about those who are stripped of their identity around you, then you can go on to spin stories about other countries,” wrote one person.

(Views expressed are personal)