Here are some stray thoughts.
Kottayam, Dec 06,2005
By O J George
Could anyone in Kerala (southernmost State of India) cut the caste conundrum to size and remain in power? Sadly, none.

And the prospects are bleak for the people of Kerala, which Swami Vivekananda called a lunatic asylum (of casteism), to emerge out of the vice-grip of this Mighty Being.

Political pundits plough through ideologies which prop up the governments from time to time. But underlying all the forces which propel governments, this Upper Caste hegemony works overtime to gain supremacy.

A close look at the post-Independence regimes which remained in Kerala reveals that only Upper Caste leaders could successfully pull through in political governance.

Leaders of backward classes and minorities were swept aside or pulled down whenever they were perched atop. Congress leader R.Shankar, an Ezhava stalwart, could not complete his term as Chief Minister.

Of course, there were reasons many which had gone against his government. Even if he propitiated his opponents, the backwardness in Caste would have proved to be his Achilles’ heel.

What had happened to Chief Minister Mohamed Koya? His regime remained in power for countable days. If Koya could not make it, could anyone alse in the IUML aspire to be the CM?

In spite of the best practices and Utopian idealism of A.K.Antony, his regimes were on slippery slope. His first two tenures could be termed only as stop-gap arrangements, to take over when K. Karunakaran called it a day following the Rajan case imbroglio first, and then to lead the UDF Government when Karunakaran was forced out following the ISRO espionage issue.

Of course, Antony’s third term could be reckoned as his regular Chief Ministership. But, all forces had arrayed against him and bayed for his blood.

The debacle of all the Congress candidates in the Lok Sabha elections, driven by the collective opposition, ensured his ouster.Now, Oommen Chandy with all his populism and political camaraderie on the one side and sharp-shooting action against mischief-makers on the other, is moving lame duck.

If things move like this, the Mighty Brain, holed up somewhere and pervading the interiors of the minds of various political persuasions, has already crafted an epitaph for the Oommen Chandy bandwagon, once the Assembly elections are over next year.

Was it any different in the Left dispensations? An undivided Communist Party could not allow the inimitable T V Thomas, considered an all-encompassing leader, to pick up the reins of its first government in 1957.

Of course, after E M S Namboodiripad spread his wings on the administrative arena, no one could challenge him. The saga of E K Nayanar, who had fooled everybody with his seemingly foolish but calculative demeanour, was about to be snuffed out to project fire-brand K R Gowri Amma, hailing from the backward Ezhava caste, as the Chief Minister.

The saddest chapter of political history would be the denial of Chief Ministership to Gowri Amma at the time of reckoning. It could not be said to be the slip between the cup and the lip, for the Mighty Being had already made the decision.

Gowri Amma and earlier her husband T V Thomas were mere players in this power game umpired by the overbearing Being.

The latest victim is V S Achuthanandan, who like Gowri Amma, is an Ezhava. He was considered the cocksure Chief Minister last time. But he himself got defeated in the Assembly elections. Now when he has been leading the fight against the UDF all the while and being the Opposition Leader in the Assembly leading the crusades, the party is poised to desert him.

One does not have to wrack his brains to conclude that it is curtains down for Achuthanandan to become the Chief Minister next time. In all probability, Pinarayi Vijayan who successfully trounced Achuthanandan’s group in the party elections, would be the next chief minister.

Now take a ringside view of the Kerala Congress, which had emerged strong following the demise of P: T Chacko. Now its fate has been sealed in the matter of leading a government in Kerala.

For someone had ensured its splitting and splintering to smithereens to ease it out of the reckoning. All the southern states had governments led by regional parties.

But in Kerala, it was not to be, even though the undivided Kerala Congress could call its shots had it remained one. The shining example of an Upper Caste surrendering his Chief Ministership for the sake of ideology was that of CPI’ s P K Vasudevan Nair. He was led the garden path by the CPM into believing that the communists’ merger was a possibility once the CPI quit the Congress-linked government. PKV is no more.The merger is still an enigma.

This is not an attempt to unravel something that remains unknown. Antony had done his best to humour the hidden brain. His proximity to Matha Amrithanandamayi could not save him as the Chief Minister. The Matha herself has backward caste genes. Neither could his minority-bashing save Antony.

Oommen Chandy too would be aware of this. But he has chosen to go all-out against the odds. Whatever trump cards he plays would not meet the aces up the sleeves of the Mighty Being.

Make hay while the Sun shines is the only thing left for the Oommen Chandy dispensation.
Eom
The writer can be contacted at ojgeorge@gmail.com

This is from a journalist blogger who wants to share thoughts sans frontiers.These could be on political developments, current events, social happenings or just imaginings.

What is happening to people like Uma Bharti of the BJP in India ? Just because she was denied of the post of chief ministership of Madhya Pradesh, one of the Hindi heartland States in India, could she go haywire with her outbursts ? Maybe, she was eligible for the post by dint of her hard work or caste claims. The moment she lost the bargain, she started on utterances of all sorts. Was it not duplicity on her part not to raise earlier the reasons she now projects ?

The same was the attitude of K.Karunakaran of the Congress Party in Kerala, the southernmost State of India.When he could not continue as chief minister, he started berating whoever of the party who donned the chair later. The theory of indispensability holds dear to them. But no one is indispensable, we know.