Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday that his daughter Veena started the business investing his wife’s pension.

Speaking during a discussion in the Assembly on the financial crisis in the state, the chief minister said the allegations levelled against him and his family are false and that his daughter started business with the pension benefits of his wife.

“You raise allegations; let us see whether people would accept it. No allegation will affect me. Now, you don’t hear people saying that my house is like a palace. Earlier, the allegations were against my wife. Now, it turned against my daughter. The allegations levelled against me earlier, including related to the biriyani vessel didn’t affectus,” Chief Minister Vijayan said.

This is the first time that Vijayan responded to the allegations against his daughter and family. However, the chief minister didn’t utter a word on Registrar of Companies’ inquiry against his daughter’s firm, Exalogic Solutions regarding the payment made to it by the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited( CMRL) company .

Blaming the Central government for the financial crisis being experienced by the state at present, CM Vijayan said the Centre had been cutting down fund allocations to the state flouting even the Financial Commission’s recommendations. This is unconstitutional. The Central government is trying to put Kerala under economic sanctions, he said

Alleging that the Centre is financially strangulating Kerala, he said the Opposition in Kerala didn’t respond positively to the demand for joint protest against this anti constitutional acts of the Centre.

Speaking on the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s Policy address, CM Vijayan alleged that the Congress is embracing “soft Hindutva” instead of countering the BJP’s communal agenda. “The Congress is not able to follow Nehruvian secularism. It is adopting a soft Hindutva policy,” CM Vijayan said.

In an oblique reference to the recent participation of Prime Minister Modi as ‘yajman’ in the Sri Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya, CM Vijayan said the act of administrators appearing as priests in religious ceremonies would shake the foundation stones of a secular country.

He alleged that the Sangh Parivar forces are trying to come back to power once again by projecting Gods during elections and by exploiting religious sentiments for narrow political gains.