Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that his government would not approve of any action intended to undermine the independent functioning of political parties in the state. He said that a rare few were seen to have fallen for the tendency to belittle those in public life. “A democracy can progress only by correcting such tendencies,” the chief minister said in the assembly on Monday.

He was responding to the submission moved by opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala in the assembly on Monday regarding the government action against SP Chaitra Teresa John who had conducted a midnight raid inside the CPM district committee office in the capital on January 24.

“A complaint regarding a police examination at the CPM district office has been submitted by the CPM district secretary. It is the obligation of a government functioning in a democratic space to seriously consider complaints given by responsible leaders of political parties,” the chief minister said. “This is precisely why the DGP was asked to conduct a probe into the complaint,” he added.

In his complaint, the CPM district secretary Anavoor Nagappan had said that there was a 'secret design' behind the raid in the CPM district office. The SP, in her search report to the magistrate, had stated that the raid was on the basis of 'reliable information'.

The chief minister was not impressed. Chaitra was shifted to the Women's Cell, and stripped of her charge as DCP (law and order). Pinarayi said the government's policy was to create the necessary conditions for political parties to function independently. “This is of paramount importance, and inevitable, in a democracy. And it is the responsibility of the police in a democracy to protect such institutions,” the chief minister said.

Pinarayi wanted political parties to be granted immunity from the law and order machinery. He said that normally party offices were not subjected to police raids. “One of the basic principles of democracy is to allow political parties to function independently. Also, political leaders in the state have generally shown a cooperative attitude towards all kinds of police investigation,” he said.

The chief minister said that the trouble began when the officer in charge refused to entertain those who reached the Medical College police station on the night of January 23 to meet people who were arrested and kept in custody. (Interestingly, he did not use the phrase 'party workers'. Neither did he say that the men the party workers were so desperate to meet were those arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.)

“When permission was refused, more people gathered in front of the station and raised slogans. In the incidents that followed, it is estimated that the station had suffered damages worth Rs 2,000,” the chief minister said. Cases were registered, including under Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.

It was to nab the accused in these cases that the police entered the CPM district office. “During the examination it was also made clear that none of the accused were in the party office. There were only a handful of leaders there at that time,” the chief minister said.