By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Saturday said that his crusade against corruption would continue, even if it involved his own party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
"This is applicable to all the news of corruption that has come regarding the CPI-M. We have a tradition where we don't accept money from tainted people. And already in two cases involving our party men, we have started taking action," Achuthanandan told reporters here.
Two cases of corruption regarding the party's mouthpiece in Kerala, Deshabhimani, have come to light. In one case, a top party official attached to the publication was suspended for accepting Rs.10 million from a financial house, which went broke. In another case, the mouthpiece accepted Rs.20 million from a lottery giant as deposit.
The CPI-M, which organised the Nayanar memorial football tournament in Kannur, came under fire from the Malayalam daily Mathurbhumi after the tournament's organisers took Rs.6 million as donation from media baron Farris Abubacker, a close aide of the party's state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
"Abubacker is not a clean person and now that this has surfaced we will certainly inquire into what happened. Only if we come clean, would the party have a bright future. On account of the corruption issues, a lot of sheen of this government has been taken away," Achuthanandan said.
With Vijayan and Achuthanandan at loggerheads, the chief minister's attack on Abubacker is certainly going to ruffle Vijayan and his aides who organised the football tournament.