Thiruvananthapuram: On the last day of Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL’19) held at Kanakakkunnu here, the conversation of ‘Kannur Masters’, the Jayarajan trio, became the crowd puller. Minister for industries E. P. Jayarajan, chief minister’s private secretary M.V. Jayarajan and Kannur district secretary of CPM P. Jayarajan were part of the conversation moderated by anchor Sreekandan Nair.

The conversation began with Sreekandan Nair’s direct question on the notorious ‘Kannur Lobby’ usage which is commonly used in media to refer to the Kannur politicians. To this, Minister E. P. Jayarajan replied that even the coinage Kannur lobby is a wrong one used with bad intentions. Asked about the unique session including the Jayarajan trio, E.P. Jayarajan said that it must be the curiosity over their same name and same place.

He stated that communists always study subjects very deeply and strive to make available the benefit of every development to people of all walks of life. He emphasized that CPM is against attack and violence and no other party members have been attacked like them. He pointed out that Sabarimala verdict was issued by the constitution bench of the Supreme Court and the government is bound to execute the same. Neither the party nor the government has any special interest to compel young women to trek Sabarimala, he clarified.

While talking about serious matters, M. V. Jayarajan shared another curious fact about the Jayarajan trio that all three of them have two sons each and they are working in banks. When asked about the contempt of court case against him on criticizing a judge, he said that he has no regret over what he said and that he does not mind being jailed for standing up for a cause.

He also stated that people have a misconception about Kannur as an area of political violence but there are only social struggles happening in the place. He observed that media rarely tell the truth and have a major role in depicting Kannur as a problem region. He talked about the attack on E. P. Jayarajan and disclosed that he had a miraculous escape from a murder attempt in which K. Sudhakaran allegedly has a role. The present silence from his part is only a process of accumulating more energy to talk, he explained.

P. Jayarajan maintained his straightforward nature in his talking and criticized the media being biased towards the party and portraying Kannur as a war zone. He also said that the media diverts attention from farmers’ suicide and attack on minority and then embellish issues in Kannur. Even the term ‘party village’ in Kannur was a media coinage, he said.

Harshly criticizing the media, he justified party mouthpiece Deshabhimani that at least they openly admit that they are biased towards a party whereas other dailies which claim to be unbiased are straight only for namesake. He mentioned that fluctuating opinion of RSS and Congress in Sabarimala issue reveals their double standard and CPM has only one stand on the issue.

Summing up the Jayarajan talks, Sreekandan Nair said that the trio is good-hearted inside though they are mostly called as representatives of violent politics in Kannur. After the conversation, Mathrubhumi Managing Editor P. V. Chandran handed over mementos to all four of them. The programme was conducted at the Palace Hall at Kanakakkunnu at 3 in the afternoon.