Kochi

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan on Saturday strongly denied allegations that he had instructed Youth Congress workers to stage a “wreath protest” at the residence of state Health Minister Veena George, asserting that such forms of protest are alien to the Congress party’s tradition.

Satheesan was responding to allegations by the minister that he had directed party workers to “attack” her official residence in Thiruvananthapuram following a surgical lapse incident.

“Directing anyone to place wreaths at ministers’ houses is not part of our style of agitation. It is not my role to issue such instructions,” Satheesan told reporters here.

The opposition leader countered the accusations by recalling earlier incidents in which activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the ruling CPI(M), allegedly vandalised his official residence, Cantonment House, and his private home in Paravur.

He alleged that Left workers had damaged property, destroyed flower pots at his official residence and assaulted visitors at his private house, and questioned whether those actions were carried out at the behest of ministers.

Satheesan further claimed that instead of taking action against those responsible, the police had registered non-bailable cases against people present inside his residence and those who had arrived to submit representations at the time.

Earlier in the day, Health Minister Veena George accused the Congress-led opposition of resorting to “heinous methods” to gain political mileage ahead of the Assembly elections and alleged that the protest at her residence was carried out on Satheesan’s instructions.

“Kerala must take note of this. The attack on my residence was executed as per the direction of Opposition leader V D Satheesan,” she alleged.

The minister also accused the opposition of deliberately maligning the public healthcare system to benefit private healthcare monopolies operating in the state.

Youth Congress workers on Saturday morning staged a protest at George’s residence, placing a wreath and demanding her resignation over a surgical lapse incident at Vandanam Government Medical College in Alappuzha.

Addressing the broader issue, Satheesan said repeated instances of alleged medical negligence across Kerala supported the Opposition’s claim that the state’s public healthcare system was in crisis.

“Health Kerala is on a ventilator. The system has collapsed,” he alleged, claiming that thousands of such incidents point to deep-rooted systemic failures.

He further alleged that major corporate groups were acquiring hospitals at exorbitant costs, sometimes paying up to Rs 2.5 crore per bed, a trend that could make private healthcare inaccessible to middle- and lower-income families.

“In such circumstances, it is the government’s responsibility to protect and strengthen the public healthcare system,” he said.

Satheesan said the UDF had recently organised a health conclave and released a policy document aimed at safeguarding public healthcare, adding that a comprehensive overhaul of the sector would be undertaken if the front returned to power.

He alleged that hospitals across the state were facing severe staff shortages and claimed that patients at several medical colleges were being reverse-referred to taluk and district hospitals due to lack of facilities.

Beyond rhetoric, he said, the government had failed to implement any substantive reforms in the health sector and urged it to address the issue with seriousness.

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The controversy follows the registration of a case against a retired doctor after an artery forceps was found inside the abdomen of a woman who had undergone surgery at Alappuzha Medical College in 2021, an incident that has sparked widespread protests across Kerala.