T’puram: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan publicly apologized to Mammootty on Monday after the actor faced a severe cyberattack from Left-leaning social media handles for expressing displeasure over CPM Wayanad district secretary K Rafeeq repeatedly accompanying him during his private visit to the township at Elstone Estate for landslide survivors in Wayanad on Saturday. Though the remark was made during a brief conversation with Rafeeq, it was captured on video and soon went viral on social media.Addressing an event in the state capital, Vijayan said Mammootty, who came with good intentions, should not have faced insults or personal attacks on social media.“There was a campaign claiming that CPM social media activists attacked Mammootty in large numbers. Would CPM social media workers not know Mammootty? It is unfortunate that he was insulted. I publicly apologize to Mammootty. We should have understood the great actor better,” said Vijayan, while responding to the controversy that erupted after the actor’s interaction with Rafeeq during his visit to the township site.The chief minister said Mammootty reached Wayanad after travelling from Chennai and had not announced his plan to visit the place. During the visit, the actor privately conveyed certain concerns to the CPM district secretary so that the matter would not be misinterpreted or become controversial, he said.Vijayan said the actor spoke to Rafeeq in a constructive manner and the CPM leader handled the situation in a responsible way. “Rafeeq is someone who intervenes in matters with good intent. Mammootty raised the issue privately only to ensure that it would not be interpreted differently or lead to unnecessary controversy,” said Vijayan.But the chief minister claimed that individuals who ‘carry cameras in their clothes’ turned the private interaction into a controversy and blew the issue out of proportion. He termed the social media abuse directed at Mammootty as unfortunate and asked why the issue was turned into a major controversy.Vijayan added that the episode showed how attempts are often made to turn even a well-intentioned intervention into a controversy.
