Not fair for CM to make allegations against media: Mathew

Kottayam, March 29(UNI) Malayala Manorama Chief Editor K M Mathew today came down heavily on Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan for Making serious allegations against the Manorama without making proper inquiries.

In a statement, Mr Mathew said Mr Achuthanandan's allegation that Malayala Manorama had received foreign aid from Congress for preventing Communists coming to power was totally absurd and indecorous.

After quoting from former US ambassador Patrick Moinihan's book that Congress got financial aid from the U S for ensuring that the Communists did not come to power in Bengal and Kerala, Achuthanathan was making allegation against Manorama, seemingly quoting which was not at all there in the book, he said.

It is not fair for a Chief Minister to make such serious allegations against media without proper inquiries. If he were making such a statement as a politician, there would have been no need of a rejoinder. But Mr Achuthanandan is now the chief minister.

It seems he forgets the position he holds.

No Communist Chief Ministers prior to him had made such allegations against Manorama. All of them might have gone through Moinihan's book. The extreme allegation against Manorama by EMS, who was alive for 20 years after the publication of the book, was that it was a bourgeois paper. He never thought of making this sort of an utter lie.

Now Mr Achuthanandan was powerful enough institute an enquiry by any agency of the state. If he stood by the allegation, let him inquire.

It was in 1947 after a span of nine years, that Manorama could resume publication after all the firms of Manorama family, including the daily and the Quilon National Bank were ruined by the Diwan of Travancore for backing the freedom movement. Since then every single rupee of this institution was accounted. It was with the loans from banks and well-wishers and its own small capital that Manorama made the re-entry in 1947. Everything thereafter was the gift of the Malayali society. It was our hard work that made it a big institution. And Mr Achutanandan was questioning the pains and the wisdom of Keralites which made Manorama big, he said.

Mr Mathew said it was insensible to think that media could be tightlipped with baseless allegations. Fascism was a word that all Communists hate, and Mr Achutanandan might not become a fascist, Mr Mathew added.

UNI