O J's Corner : Reflections

Communists want an alibi
for their non-performance


By now it has become clear that the Communists want an alibi for the non-performance of their government in Kerala. They are targeting the church to deflect the negativity the government is generating from its acts of omission and commission.

It is one thing to wax eloquent on all and sundry issues while being in the opposition, and that too as Communists. It is quite another to rule the State judiciously catering to the multiplicity of interests in a democratic set-up.

The Communists-led government cannot satisfy the aspirations of various interests in the Kerala set-up. They should have called a spade a spade and apprised sections, which stand in opposite directions ideologically, that they were not able to help them.

Instead, they were acting duplicitously by giving all sorts of promises to every conceivable interest groups and persuasions.

It does not need hair-splitting arguments that the ruling party has dealt a raw deal for the church.

That the Left Democratic Front Government has defined the minorities in a different perspective than that existed hitherto is meant to browbeat the church.

Of late, the government has been trying to corner the confidence of Muslims with an eye on dividing the joint resolve of the minorities to fight the newly- enacted legislation dealing with self-financing professional courses.

The fundamental aspect of traditional Communists is that it does not aspire for economic growth.

Traditionalists among the Communists still believe that economic growth does not necessarily generate employment opportunities and eliminate poverty. It is convinced that growth is not an all-round phenomenon. Those who get rich, grows richer.

Ostensibly, Communists do not support the rich class. That is why they are not enamoured of the rubber prices crossing the Rs 100 a kilo or cash crops getting fair returns for the growers.

During the previous E K Nayanar regime, natural rubber used to fetch approximately Rs 25 a kilo. It is true international prices were low. Still the government did pretty little to draw the growers out of the mess of price-decline.

Now Communist Finance Minister Dr Thomas Isaac has said in the budget speech that if the Rs -100 -a –kilo price persists for three months, he would levy a cess from the rubber growers. Gains from competitive market is anathema to the Communists.

Likewise, they do not care a little bit about educational sophistication the minorities, particularly the Christians, acquire through perseverance.

Communists are not worried about private education becoming costlier every year in the neighbouring States. Students make a beeline to educational institutions to get professional degrees. Their parents pay through the nose to see that their wards get professional education, be it within or outside the State.

The rigidity relates to reining in the minority institutions in Kerala to the dictates of the government.

The church now sees the writing on the wall. It is convinced that the educational institutions it has nurtured over a long period of time are being controlled by proxy.

The church has to share the blame for the Communists’ belligerence. It thought the Communists were getting refined. For a few years now, the church has been opening its portals to the leftists betraying an aura of multi-party inclusion. Earlier, it could not think of welcoming Communist ideologies.

Now it has to learn the lesson the hard way that the Communists won’t change. The church has to defend itself to protect its educational institutions.