‘You didn’t go to have tea’: UAPA accused Alan’s tit-for-tat reply to Pinarayi Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 11 (IANS) Former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s old ‘tea’ remark has come back to haunt him.

And the person serving it back is none other than young Alan Shuaib.

Alan, who was arrested in the controversial Pantheerankavu UAPA case in 2019, on Friday posted a one-line message posted in his social media post apparently aimed at Vijayan, his daughter T. Veena Vijayan and son-in-law P.A. Mohammed Riyas, presently facing the heat from the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

All I have to say to Pinarayi Vijayan, Riyas and Veena is “You didn’t go to have tea”.

But it carries a long political memory.

The remark is a direct recall of words used by Vijayan after Alan and his friend Thaha Fazal were arrested by the Kerala Police in November 2019.

The two students were accused of having Maoist links. They were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Their arrests created a major political controversy.

Both were known to be CPI-M sympathisers.

Sections of the Left also questioned the decision to invoke UAPA against them.

When the Kerala government faced questions over the arrests, Vijayan had famously said when asked by the media: “They (Allan and his friend) didn’t go there to have tea, did they?”

The case was later handed over to the National Investigation Agency.

This too happened during Vijayan’s tenure as the Kerala Chief Minister.

Alan and Thaha spent a long period in jail before securing bail.

Years later, Alan has brought the same tea remark back into the political conversation.

Only this time, the cup is being served in the opposite direction.

The ED has sought action under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Vijayan, Riyas, Veena and others based on its findings in the CMRL-Exalogic financial transactions.

The agency has handed over a 25-page report, along with supporting documents, to State Police Chief Ravada A. Chandrasekhar. Though, Alan did not write a long social media post. He did not spell out his argument.

He simply borrowed Vijayan’s own words.

That appears to be the point.

The message has an unmistakable element of political payback.

A phrase that Vijayan once used while defending action against two young students has now been turned back on him.

The irony is hard to miss.

The Pantheerankavu case had once placed Alan at the receiving end of a political storm.

Now, years later, he has chosen one sentence to remind Vijayan of that episode.

No long explanation. No elaborate political attack. Just tea.

And a line Vijayan himself once made famous.

–IANS

sg/khz