JAN CHETNA YATRA REACHED KERALA

JAN CHETNA YATRA REACHED KERALA

BJP leader L. K. Advani, who will be in Kerala on Friday and Saturday,28th^th and 29th^th October,2011, on his ‘Janachetana Yatra’ against corruption, will address public meetings at six places in the State including Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam. The other locations are Kottarakkara, Pandalam, Kottayam and Cherthala. Mr. Advani, who arrives at Aryankavu on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border on Friday evening, will reach Thiruvananthapuram by 7.30 pm via Madathara, Palode, Nedumangad, Peroorkada and Palayam.

He is accompanied by national leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ananth Kumar and Muralidhar Rao. BJP State president V. Muraleedharan told the media here on Thursday that in Kerala the Yatra would be focusing on the partnership between the ruling and Opposition fronts in corruption. Both fronts were afraid of enquiries into corruption charges. The State president said that the allegations about corruption in the pollution control plant at Travancore Titanium Products which caused a loss of Rs. 130 crore to the exchequer was the latest instance.

The LDF, which had opposed CBI enquiry while in power, was now demanding it. However, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy refused to oblige for fear of exposure. Mr. Muraleedharan noted that the CPI (M) was not keen on exposing the deals behind the Brahmos project in Thiruvananthapuram. The investigation into the allegations of corruption in Malabar Cements had been effectively paralysed by removing the investigating officer and appointing none in his place. The Yatra would expose the unholy alliance between the two fronts who were partners in corruption.

. Agencies have put in place high-level security ahead of a visit by Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani, as part of his Jan Chetna Yatra. Mr. Advani reached in Kochi on Saturday,29^th Ocotber,2011. The City Police said that top-level security, including patrolling of the waterfront by the Navy, was in place and there was no need to step it up in the light of the detection of a pipe-bomb The bomb squad of the City Police have started checking  everywhere in the  city.

 Addressing a public reception accorded to him at Cherthala near here as part of his ‘Jana Chetana Yatra’ on Saturday, Mr. Advani said corruption scandals were nothing new whenever the Congress ruled the country, starting from the regimes of Jawaharlal Nehru, through that of Indira Gandhi and up to Rajiv Gandhi, when the nation saw the entire Lok Sabha resigning in protest of the Bofors scam. However, never before has India witnessed one scandal after the other as was the current situation.

The Government headed by Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi was seeing every top body of the country, including the Supreme Court and the CAG, pulling up the Government and one Minister after the other ending up in jail. This situation had demoralised the people, he said.

However, though the whole world was wondering what was happening in India, the country still had the potential to become a leading world power, if corruption was ended and all the black money that was stashed away in accounts including those in Swiss banks were brought back, he said.

                                                                                          Prof. John Kurakar