Kozhikode: Roughed up badly in the controversy regarding the reference to Malappuram district in connection with gold smuggling and hawala money, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has launched a counterattack in an attempt to salvage his pride, furiously asking why someone gets disturbed when fingers are pointed at gold smugglers.

While inaugurating the AKG auditorium, built by the CPM district committee, the Chief Minister stated that "The Hindu" has made a mistake by publishing things he didn’t say during the interview. “This has been conveyed to the people concerned at ‘The Hindu,’ and I have come to know that they too have made it clear that the ‘controversial part’ of the interview was provided to them by a PR agency and apologised for their mistake,” CM said.

“To speak against the gold smuggling through Karipur airport is not against a district. It is not against Malappuram district. But some people want to paint it like that. Why do people get disturbed when allegations are made against gold smuggling?” Pinarayi asked. “There are some communal forces behind these allegations. The minority and majority communalism are very much complementary and function together. Both these will be strongly opposed. The government is opposing minority communalism, not minority people,” he said.

“Kozhikode airport is situated in Malappuram district. Since 2020, 147.79 kg of gold has been seized in the state. Of this, 124 kg of gold has been seized in connection with Karipur airport. Naturally, this would be considered a crime committed in Malappuram district. When I say this, don’t portray this as an allegation against Malappuram district,” CM said.

“Don’t think that one could say whatever one wishes just because some communal forces are behind them. CPM is not a party that would start taking action just by hearing somebody standing on the road shouting nonsense. CPM has its own organisational structure, and it functions within this framework. Nobody should think that they could drag the party into wrong paths,” Pinarayi said.