Jaleel-Ramesh spat gets personal

Kannur/Kottayam: In the midst of the ‘mark donation’ allegations raised against him, higher education minister K T Jaleel has raised a counter allegation, indirectly, against leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala . Jaleel has demanded a probe to ascertain how the Congress leader’s son successfully cleared the 2017 civil service examination.

In response, Chennithala told the media that the minister does not even have elementary knowledge of how civil service examinations take place, and that he felt sorry for him.

Addressing a news conference in Kasaragod on Thursday, in reply to Chennithala’s allegations about corruption, Jaleel said the leader of the opposition, who is seeking for an investigation into the marks scandal in Mahatma Gandhi University, should also seek a probe into the civil services examination of 2017.

“In the written examination, Anudeep Durishetty, the candidate who got first rank, scored 910 marks. In the same examination, the son of a prominent politician in Kerala scored 828 marks. But in the interview, politician’s son got 206 marks while the first rank holder got only 176 marks,” he said, without naming the leader.

The politician has been frequenting New Delhi and lobbying for his son, Jaleel said, adding that the he probably thinks others are also like him, and hence has been raising false allegations on grace marks.

Jaleel also said Chennithala has been harping over a non-existent issue with an eye on bypolls.

Countering Jaleel’s allegations, Chennithala said it was improper on his part to raise allegations against those who are sitting at home. The opposition’s attack on Jaleel’s ‘favouritism’ will go forward and it is high time that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan broke his silence on the issue.

Incidentally, a new video, which surfaced on Thursday, showed Jaleel’s private secretary Dr Sharafuddeen participating in an ‘adalat’ held in Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam in February. The minister had earlier claimed that his secretary did not attend the ‘adalat’ and that he returned after attending the inaugural function. The minister’s office later clarified that the private secretary has not participated in any meetings, during which students raised complaints. Neither was he present at any meeting in which any decision was taken. Sharafuddin took part only in the inaugural session, said the communique. It was in this ‘adalat’ that the plea of a BTech student of a self-financing college seeking grace marks for the supplementary examination of the sixth semester was considered.