The charge, however, is not of action, but of 'criminal inaction'. And it is the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Kerala Capital, recently in limelight as first in Cybermedia Biospectrum's list of India's top 5 BT schools, which is dragged into the nepotism allegation.

"The Kerala government is yet to move papers on the Centre taking over the State's premier BT research institute. The 'Centre of Excellence' tag announced in the 2006-2007 Union Budget has not come to the institute, even when the country is readying for its next Budget presentation," former Kerala minister and Congress leader MM Hassan has said. "Achuthanadan has been sitting pretty on the papers to be sent to the Centre because, the appointment norms of a Central government R&D institute would not suit his daughter, working in the R&D centre as a scientist," he had alleged.

The State is said to have lost annual R&D grant to the tune of Rs 200 crore per year, because of the delay in the Centre's takeover of the institute. So has been corresponding losses in opportunity cost to 160-odd scientists in the R&D centre. Hassan's argument is that the Chief Minister was biding time to tailor the posting norms of the institute to suit that of his daughter.

"It's a baseless political allegation," commented Achuthanandan on Wednesday, when scribes sought his reaction on the charge of his daughter's 'backdoor entry' into the Rajiv Gandhi Biotechnology Institute. "She had been working in the institute when those Congress leaders in Opposition now, who throw the allegation at me, were in power. Why didn't they make inquiries against her 'backdoor entry' then and take action?" he countered.

Earlier, critics had pointed out that Achuthanandan's daughter-in-law was the chief executive of an online lottery firm, when he was crusading against fraudulent online lottery operators in Kerala, in his role as Opposition leader. Promptly, he had got his daughter-in-law to resign from the controversial seat. In the Chief Minister's daughter's case, the issue is yet to take that dramatic a spin.