Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena, a software engineer, is getting married to the CPI-M youth wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) national President Mohamed Riaz.
Second marriage
This would be the second marriage for both, as their first ones ended in a divorce.
Riaz is a lawyer by profession and had contested the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat in 2009 but lost to the Congress’ M.K.Raghavan.
Veena runs her own software company in Bengaluru.
While Veena has one child from her earlier marriage, Riaz has two.
While the marriage has been registered recently, the wedding event would be held here, on June 15, and would be a closed door affair, in line with the present Covid protocols.
Right-wing ideologues back in action
It seems that right-wing ideologues were waiting for such opportunity. They started targeting the couple over the difference of their faith.
One of the person wrote, “Ultimate love jehad. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena to marry Muhammad Riyaz. Father and daughter setting the perfect example for secular Hindus to follow. Have you heard of a single Kerala Mappilah woman who married a Hindu man”.
Another person by name, Priti Gandhi claimed, “Riyaz is the brain behind ‘beef fests’ which had been organised across Kerala to protest against ban on sale of cattle for slaughter”.
A twitterati questioned, “Ah! Let’s see if they’re really Communists or if she’s made to convert to Islam.”.