Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, V D Satheesan, on Saturday engaged in a war of words over the alleged attack against the workers of Youth Congress and Kerala Students Union by the security staff of the CM in Alappuzha recently.

Vijayan, while addressing a press conference here, strongly supported one of his security staff who was accused of brutally thrashing the protesters with a stick in Alappuzha on Friday and forcibly pushing away a press photographer who tried to take his pictures in Idukki.?The chief minister said his bodyguards ensure that no danger happens to him.

Vijayan said the photographer had come very close to him while he was walking, and it was natural for his bodyguard to move him away. "It is very natural, and they are deployed for the duty," he said, justifying his security staff's action. The CM also said that he didn't see the particular officer attacking the KSU activists who had staged a protest in Alappuzha.

Vijayan said he and his cabinet colleagues were travelling together on the bus to attend the Nava Kerala Sadas programme and certain people suddenly jumped in front of the vehicle. "I only saw the policemen in uniform blocking them," he said, adding that his other security personnel were not there at that moment.?He also criticised the opposition Congress and the media for consistently criticising the Nava Kerala Sadas, his government's ambitious outreach programme, and said that the initiative was for the welfare of the state and its people.

However, Satheesan came down heavily on Vijayan and accused him of having a "sadist mindset". He asked whether nobody has the right to stage protest against the government and the CM in Kerala.?Vijayan's security personnel had attacked the student protesters with a heavy stick and the CM was taking along with him "criminals" in the police force as his bodyguards, he alleged.

The LoP also warned that such officers would not be able to move out of their homes if the Congress activists decided to do so. Besides Satheesan, KPCC chief K Sudhakaran also heavily criticised the CM over the issue and alleged that his bodyguards and gunmen were a "group of hardened criminals" in the police.