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Deep pentration, quick conception and easy delivery
By O J George
Kottayam: Kamala Surayya just created ripples in the society. I believe she could do so only because she was a woman of substance.
Just any woman cannot speak about eternal love, carnal love and the mind’s peccadilloes in a manner Kamala Surayya did.
She did all these things with poise because she was a woman of high calibre, a position she climbed up with incessant reading, assimilation and creation.
“A woman of deep penetration, quick conception and easy delivery”. That was a comment made about Annie Besant. This comment aptly applies to Kamala Surayya.
She was Madhavikkutty to readers of her Malayalam works, short stories and novelettes. She was Kamala Das to readers of her English works, including her autobiography, “My Story”.
An ordinary mortal would think she rebelled against captive wifedom, later she lived life as she liked, transcending orthodox family traditions, and that too coming from a known tharavad, she changed religion from Hinduism to Islam, which some alleged was for selfishness, etc.
Actually, her life was one of creativity, intellectualism and all-pervasive exposition of love. Maybe, she should have been possessed of the characteristics of Brahman, the way she loved all kinds of people.
When she switched her faith from Hinduism to Islam, many ordinary mortals who earlier adored her were on the vanguard of troubling her, humiliating her.
There was a hate campaign against her, about which she was worried.
The climactic exercise of malevolence by these elements forced her to shift residence from Kochi to Pune, where she breathed her last at the age of 75.
Justifiably, she is being given a State funeral. Her children have decided she should have a burial in accordance with the belief system she last clung on. So she would be buried at the Juma Masjid at Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram.
Before that, befittingly, there would be funeral procession from Kochi to Thrissur, back to Ernakulam and from there to Thiruvananthapuram via Alappuzha and Kollam.
People would be able to pay their last respects to her en route to her final resting place.
I respect all people who are endowed with awareness, reading, creativity and indepth intellectual transactions without looking into their creed, faith and political views.
She deserves the highest order of respect simply on account of her accomplishments.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Karuna should be proud of his children doing fine
By O J George
Kottayam: Our leader K.Karunakaran should take lessons from Kalaignar Dr Muthuvel Karunanidhi. For Karunanidhi should be quite proud of his children doing fine in politics.
M.K.Azhagiri, son through first wife is now Union Cabinet Minister. Recently he was held by the police for allegedly fomenting trouble in the Madurai region, where he was sent to build up the party.
Now he is Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals.
M.K.Stalin, Karunanidhi’s son through his second wife, has been elevated as the Deputy Chief Minister in Karunanidhi’s Cabinet.
By now it has been made loud and clear that the mantle of Karunanidhi’s successor would fall on the 55-year-old Stalin.
Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter through the third wife, an accomplished lady with erudition in literature, arts and politics, is Rajya Sabha MP.
There were reports that she was being appointed a Minister in the Union Cabinet. But Kanimozhi was magnanimous enough to keep off so that someone else in the party might be benefited.
For instance, Dayanidhi Maran, grand nephew of Karunanidhi, who was marginalised in DMK politics for a while as Karunanidhi wanted to teach a lesson to the Maran clan for disobeying his diktat, is now back in the reckoning. Maran made it clear that he would not stand on ceremony for getting a chosen portfolio. Ultimately he was game for keeping the textiles portfolio.
That was great blessing considering the fact that heavy-weights like T R Balu have been laid in the lurch. It seems Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not keen to keep Balu. Neither was A.Raja in the good books of the PM, but he managed to cling on owing to political considerations.
Anyway, Karunanidhi, who would celebrate his 86th birthday on June 3, has come full circle in his political life. He has bequeathed his accomplishments to his children. No one can challenge them, as the arrangements have been finalised as per the wishes of Kalaignar.
One should analyse the finesse with which Kalaignar achieved all this. No grumbling, no murmur from others. Everyone seems to be satisfied that he is looked after very well.
In Kerala, K.Karunakaran was quite successful for some time in grooming his children K.Muralidharan and Padmaja Venugopal to adorn positions in political life.
K.Muralidharan had even become the president of the state unit of Congress Party. And he had done well in the position he held for a brief while. His leaving this coveted post for ministership apparently threw a spanner in his political life. Now he is gasping for his breath in the NCP. Who knows, perhaps his time will also come to fruition. Politics is never static. It goes on churning in the pot. The product would be either Amrit or poison. It would be the lot of the protagonist, and his luck or lack of it.
Daughter Padmaja Venugopal also has not come up the way Karunakaran wanted. For things are a bit difficult in a national party like Congress vis-à-vis Dravidian parties like DMK and ADMK.
K.M.Mani of Kerala Congress (M) could succeed in enthroning son Jose.K.Mani as his successor. Now nobody would challenge it.
If the progenies do fine, and serve the people, no one can blame the progenitors for crowning their wards with what they have.
By O J George
Kottayam: Our leader K.Karunakaran should take lessons from Kalaignar Dr Muthuvel Karunanidhi. For Karunanidhi should be quite proud of his children doing fine in politics.
M.K.Azhagiri, son through first wife is now Union Cabinet Minister. Recently he was held by the police for allegedly fomenting trouble in the Madurai region, where he was sent to build up the party.
Now he is Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals.
M.K.Stalin, Karunanidhi’s son through his second wife, has been elevated as the Deputy Chief Minister in Karunanidhi’s Cabinet.
By now it has been made loud and clear that the mantle of Karunanidhi’s successor would fall on the 55-year-old Stalin.
Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter through the third wife, an accomplished lady with erudition in literature, arts and politics, is Rajya Sabha MP.
There were reports that she was being appointed a Minister in the Union Cabinet. But Kanimozhi was magnanimous enough to keep off so that someone else in the party might be benefited.
For instance, Dayanidhi Maran, grand nephew of Karunanidhi, who was marginalised in DMK politics for a while as Karunanidhi wanted to teach a lesson to the Maran clan for disobeying his diktat, is now back in the reckoning. Maran made it clear that he would not stand on ceremony for getting a chosen portfolio. Ultimately he was game for keeping the textiles portfolio.
That was great blessing considering the fact that heavy-weights like T R Balu have been laid in the lurch. It seems Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not keen to keep Balu. Neither was A.Raja in the good books of the PM, but he managed to cling on owing to political considerations.
Anyway, Karunanidhi, who would celebrate his 86th birthday on June 3, has come full circle in his political life. He has bequeathed his accomplishments to his children. No one can challenge them, as the arrangements have been finalised as per the wishes of Kalaignar.
One should analyse the finesse with which Kalaignar achieved all this. No grumbling, no murmur from others. Everyone seems to be satisfied that he is looked after very well.
In Kerala, K.Karunakaran was quite successful for some time in grooming his children K.Muralidharan and Padmaja Venugopal to adorn positions in political life.
K.Muralidharan had even become the president of the state unit of Congress Party. And he had done well in the position he held for a brief while. His leaving this coveted post for ministership apparently threw a spanner in his political life. Now he is gasping for his breath in the NCP. Who knows, perhaps his time will also come to fruition. Politics is never static. It goes on churning in the pot. The product would be either Amrit or poison. It would be the lot of the protagonist, and his luck or lack of it.
Daughter Padmaja Venugopal also has not come up the way Karunakaran wanted. For things are a bit difficult in a national party like Congress vis-à-vis Dravidian parties like DMK and ADMK.
K.M.Mani of Kerala Congress (M) could succeed in enthroning son Jose.K.Mani as his successor. Now nobody would challenge it.
If the progenies do fine, and serve the people, no one can blame the progenitors for crowning their wards with what they have.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
People expect too much from the CPM
By O J George
Kottayam: A setback for the CPM gets double attention because the people expect too much from the party which stands for ensuring social justice, equal opportunity and empowerment of the down-trodden.
People forget that the classic Communists are not there anywhere in the world, and there cannot be regeneration of any more Marx, Engels, Lenin, Che Guera, not even E M S Namboodiripad.
One may accost Fidel and Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and a few Africal varieties.
Jyoti Basu’s time is over in West Bangal and Kerala cannot have a new P Krishna Pillai. Times have changed. Text book Communism will not relapse.
But then, total rejection of the available variety will offer opportunities for the ultras emerging from the dejected lot, Like Naxalites, to have their sway. That is what is happening in more than half a dozen states elsewhere in the country.
Here in Kerala, V S Achuthanandan faction and Pinarayi Vijayan group are fighting it out among themselves, the former for a toe-hold in and the latter for complete control of the party.
They can only ensure mutual annihilation, but the people would not have any benefit out of it.
One cannot exist without the prevalence of the other. Because both are representatives of vast sections of the people. But the people themselves are a dejected lot now.
There is an anecdote in “ Ettamathe Mothiram” (The Eighth Ring) the autobiography of Malayala Manorama supremo K.M.Mathew about the rescue of the boat in which the family members were voyaging in Kuttanad, when he was a child.
The local people swung to action and salvaged the drowning boat. K M Mathew’s father thanked them and asked them, “Do you know who we are?”
The locals swiftly turned back and retorted. “We did what we should. What is it to us whoever you may be?” .
This was the same retort given to V S Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan, and Prakash Karat from Delhi in tow, in the Lok Sabha elections.
You may be arguing about in unending rounds of party meetings blaming each other for non-deliverance. People do not want justification for what has not been done. They want action to ameliorate their woes in the nick of time.
Philipose Mar Chrysostom Marthoma Valiyametropolitan once raised a question. What would the poor do if there were no Communists?
Mind you, the Communists had earned a niche in the minds of the people about doing something for ensuring social justice, fetching decent returns for the workers and the like.
Forget about their insistence on non-belief for party leaders, razing down cultivations in the name of protecting paddy fields, their wayward activists charging looking fee while others do loading and unloading, looking askance at the many workers engaging in illicit liquor trade in every nook and cranny.
But the compendious entity of the Communists had heralded a new era of rejuvenation of the society in which the poor extracted their rights from the haves, crass injustices in some cases notwithstanding.
It would be a historical blunder if V S Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan continue to fight it out among themselves for extraneous innings, presided over by Prakash Karat, leaving the people and the main aim of serving them, particularly the poor and the weak, in the lurch.
By O J George
Kottayam: A setback for the CPM gets double attention because the people expect too much from the party which stands for ensuring social justice, equal opportunity and empowerment of the down-trodden.
People forget that the classic Communists are not there anywhere in the world, and there cannot be regeneration of any more Marx, Engels, Lenin, Che Guera, not even E M S Namboodiripad.
One may accost Fidel and Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and a few Africal varieties.
Jyoti Basu’s time is over in West Bangal and Kerala cannot have a new P Krishna Pillai. Times have changed. Text book Communism will not relapse.
But then, total rejection of the available variety will offer opportunities for the ultras emerging from the dejected lot, Like Naxalites, to have their sway. That is what is happening in more than half a dozen states elsewhere in the country.
Here in Kerala, V S Achuthanandan faction and Pinarayi Vijayan group are fighting it out among themselves, the former for a toe-hold in and the latter for complete control of the party.
They can only ensure mutual annihilation, but the people would not have any benefit out of it.
One cannot exist without the prevalence of the other. Because both are representatives of vast sections of the people. But the people themselves are a dejected lot now.
There is an anecdote in “ Ettamathe Mothiram” (The Eighth Ring) the autobiography of Malayala Manorama supremo K.M.Mathew about the rescue of the boat in which the family members were voyaging in Kuttanad, when he was a child.
The local people swung to action and salvaged the drowning boat. K M Mathew’s father thanked them and asked them, “Do you know who we are?”
The locals swiftly turned back and retorted. “We did what we should. What is it to us whoever you may be?” .
This was the same retort given to V S Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan, and Prakash Karat from Delhi in tow, in the Lok Sabha elections.
You may be arguing about in unending rounds of party meetings blaming each other for non-deliverance. People do not want justification for what has not been done. They want action to ameliorate their woes in the nick of time.
Philipose Mar Chrysostom Marthoma Valiyametropolitan once raised a question. What would the poor do if there were no Communists?
Mind you, the Communists had earned a niche in the minds of the people about doing something for ensuring social justice, fetching decent returns for the workers and the like.
Forget about their insistence on non-belief for party leaders, razing down cultivations in the name of protecting paddy fields, their wayward activists charging looking fee while others do loading and unloading, looking askance at the many workers engaging in illicit liquor trade in every nook and cranny.
But the compendious entity of the Communists had heralded a new era of rejuvenation of the society in which the poor extracted their rights from the haves, crass injustices in some cases notwithstanding.
It would be a historical blunder if V S Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan continue to fight it out among themselves for extraneous innings, presided over by Prakash Karat, leaving the people and the main aim of serving them, particularly the poor and the weak, in the lurch.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The leaf and the thorn will not writhe in pain
By O J George
Kottayam: CPM’s two-day state secretariat concluded yesterday, only for the three-day state committee to begin today.
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has directed all concerned to abide by the guidelines issued by the politburo regarding election results review.
The review should not go beyond the election results and there should be no personal attacks against leaders.
Karat was doing a balancing act when he asked the state secretariat to include a bit about the cause of the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. He found it fit to insert the finding of the politburo that the Lavalin issue and hastily hobnobbing with the PDP had created confusion.
Without this observation, the report prepared by state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was all accusing fingers against Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan. His style of functioning, his different stance on Lavalin and PDP and apparent irreverence to the faction led by the party secretary were all debilitating factors.
Now Karat has asked Achuthanandan to call an end to the different posturing on Lavalin issue. By now it is clear that Achuthanandan wanted Pinarayi Vijayan to go through court proceedings. But no other leader is prepared to susbscribe to this view.
After the three-day state committee, there would be grand discussions at the politburo and central committee levels, commencing the exercise on June 19. By then, all state units of the CPM would have concluded their discussions.
The threadbare discussions and consequential corrections, if any, would consume the whole year.
And by then, the party machinery at all levels would have to be kept oiled for facing the panchayat elections to be held in Kerala next year.
No doubt, the LDF has equal chance to win in the panchayat and other local bodies’ elections. It would not be like near-total wiping as in the Lok Sabha polls.
Come panchayat elections, and the party would be revived. No heads will roll, all will be hunky dory.
By O J George
Kottayam: CPM’s two-day state secretariat concluded yesterday, only for the three-day state committee to begin today.
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has directed all concerned to abide by the guidelines issued by the politburo regarding election results review.
The review should not go beyond the election results and there should be no personal attacks against leaders.
Karat was doing a balancing act when he asked the state secretariat to include a bit about the cause of the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. He found it fit to insert the finding of the politburo that the Lavalin issue and hastily hobnobbing with the PDP had created confusion.
Without this observation, the report prepared by state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was all accusing fingers against Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan. His style of functioning, his different stance on Lavalin and PDP and apparent irreverence to the faction led by the party secretary were all debilitating factors.
Now Karat has asked Achuthanandan to call an end to the different posturing on Lavalin issue. By now it is clear that Achuthanandan wanted Pinarayi Vijayan to go through court proceedings. But no other leader is prepared to susbscribe to this view.
After the three-day state committee, there would be grand discussions at the politburo and central committee levels, commencing the exercise on June 19. By then, all state units of the CPM would have concluded their discussions.
The threadbare discussions and consequential corrections, if any, would consume the whole year.
And by then, the party machinery at all levels would have to be kept oiled for facing the panchayat elections to be held in Kerala next year.
No doubt, the LDF has equal chance to win in the panchayat and other local bodies’ elections. It would not be like near-total wiping as in the Lok Sabha polls.
Come panchayat elections, and the party would be revived. No heads will roll, all will be hunky dory.
The last laugh and other things
By O J George
Kottayam: It seems the CPM is concerned about the laughter of Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan. Not that the party is worried about the happy-go-lucky face of the old war-horse. But he made a mighty laugh on learning the info that the party stood demolished in the Lok Sabha elections.
Channels are vetting threadbare the body language, the tools of party communication and the like regarding Achuthanandan's last laugh.
The line-up of intellectuals, pro and con, is a mighty scene. Don’t we have anything else to mull over?
We have the hard facts before us. V S Achuthanandan was never the real party choice for chief ministership. Technically, the party made the decision at the eleventh hour to field him in the Assembly elections.
When he won, there was no choice, but to crown him Chief Minister. Then the modus operandi was to bridle him on every conceivable occasion. Even the political secretary and the personal staff assigned by the party have reportedly observed at the party for a that the Chief Minister cannot be depended upon.
The left democractic front has huge majority in the Assembly forum. The party is ruled over by his bete noire Pinarayi Vijayan. All efforts to corner Pinarayi Vijayan in the Lavalin case have failed. The last tool could be the Governor with whom various interests want Pinarayi Vijayan nailed. Governor R S Gavai is also dilly-dallying.
From the clarifications sought by him from the government as well as the CBI, it seems he has not given up the weapon of granting sanction to prosecute the Lavalin accused even as the advocate-general and the state government have said no.
It is a mystery how Achuthanandan survives in the face of this much of opposition for him in the party apparatus. During crucial times,the CPI would come to his rescue. If there is a plea for change of guard of administration, the CPI would oppose it at the LDF.
It is also another hard fact that Achuthanandan cannot continue with his modus operandi, if Pinarayi Vijayan is hunted out through the Lavalin conundrum.
Ultimately, this would end up like a game of one upmanship, without the attacks meeting the target point-blank.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Down in the dumps, now glamorous
By O J George
Politics has devious ways, leaders are merely sultans of the day. So celebrate when your time is good.
What would be a better example to project than the case of P J Joseph of Kerala Congress. He was down in the dumps for nearly three years, owing to an inappropriate behaviour case. This was not even a sex scandal. Media had blown the issue out of proportions.
He lost his Ministership within 100 days of assuming office. Most of the party associates and the general public at large loathed him. However, he continued to be chairman of the party only because no one could remove him from the post, as the party is solely his.
Now the court in Sriperumbudur, Chennai, has absolved him of the charge, which was that he caught hold of the breast of a woman passenger sitting in the front row from behind. The court found that there was no evidence to prove the charge.
The twist of destiny could be gauged. P C Thomas, whom P J Joseph gave accommodation when no one else was there to take him owing to his hobnobbing with the BJP, almost deserted him.
Thomas formed his own farmers’ conglomeration. He, and a few followers he had, stopped attending party meetings.
Now when the verdict is out, suddenly everyone is cozying himself up to P J Joseph. Dr K C Joseph faction had been pulling strings to see Joseph’s downfall. With the support of powerful outsiders, Mons Joseph was made the Minister in place of P J Joseph. This group never wanted Joseph to return absolved.
Now the moment Joseph is acquitted, there is a hue and cry about showing allegiance. Mons Joseph will not wait one moment to give way for Joseph. PC Thomas, Surendran Pillai and others are all agreeable to Joseph returning to power as Minister.
It was honourable of the Oppposition not to have made any adverse comment against Joseph.
People would always be there when you have power. They will desert you and snub you when you are in trouble. If you emerge powerful again, they would toe your line unabashedly.
By O J George
Politics has devious ways, leaders are merely sultans of the day. So celebrate when your time is good.
What would be a better example to project than the case of P J Joseph of Kerala Congress. He was down in the dumps for nearly three years, owing to an inappropriate behaviour case. This was not even a sex scandal. Media had blown the issue out of proportions.
He lost his Ministership within 100 days of assuming office. Most of the party associates and the general public at large loathed him. However, he continued to be chairman of the party only because no one could remove him from the post, as the party is solely his.
Now the court in Sriperumbudur, Chennai, has absolved him of the charge, which was that he caught hold of the breast of a woman passenger sitting in the front row from behind. The court found that there was no evidence to prove the charge.
The twist of destiny could be gauged. P C Thomas, whom P J Joseph gave accommodation when no one else was there to take him owing to his hobnobbing with the BJP, almost deserted him.
Thomas formed his own farmers’ conglomeration. He, and a few followers he had, stopped attending party meetings.
Now when the verdict is out, suddenly everyone is cozying himself up to P J Joseph. Dr K C Joseph faction had been pulling strings to see Joseph’s downfall. With the support of powerful outsiders, Mons Joseph was made the Minister in place of P J Joseph. This group never wanted Joseph to return absolved.
Now the moment Joseph is acquitted, there is a hue and cry about showing allegiance. Mons Joseph will not wait one moment to give way for Joseph. PC Thomas, Surendran Pillai and others are all agreeable to Joseph returning to power as Minister.
It was honourable of the Oppposition not to have made any adverse comment against Joseph.
People would always be there when you have power. They will desert you and snub you when you are in trouble. If you emerge powerful again, they would toe your line unabashedly.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
One more hartal, horrifying for people
By O J George
Thursday witnessed one more hartal, or stoppage of activities, in Kerala for political reasons.
It threw normal life out of gear. There were no transports. KSRTC buses were stoned at many places in the State.
Some of the activists who blocked traffic were arrested by the police.Shops and commercial establishments remained shut.
An activist was taken into custody from the district office of the Congress Party in Kochi.
Private buses were off the road, two-wheelers and stray cars were seen plying.
Mercifully, other tragedies did not occur as of now.
Powerful people can escape the dragnet of the law. They cannot be proceeded against in accordance with the law. For, they can plug the loop-holes anywhere.
CPM state secretary and former Power Minister Pinarayi Vijayan may not be guilty. But that has to be proved in a court of law, according to Congress leaders.
CBI has found charges against him, but it can charge-sheet him only if the Governor accords sanction. The Governor has sent the CBI’s letter to the government, which sent it to the advocate-general. The AG has said there is no need for prosecution. Not only that, he has totally absolved Pinarayi Vijayan.
The cabinet has approved the line of the AG and sent it to the Governor, who is not bound by the advice of the government. But will he take the risk of overshooting the advice of the cabinet? That is a million-dollar question, an answer for which is due on any day now.
This much of action has precipitated Thursday’s hartal. It seems there is no other avenue to register political parties’ protest. Anyway people are the sufferers.
By O J George
Thursday witnessed one more hartal, or stoppage of activities, in Kerala for political reasons.
It threw normal life out of gear. There were no transports. KSRTC buses were stoned at many places in the State.
Some of the activists who blocked traffic were arrested by the police.Shops and commercial establishments remained shut.
An activist was taken into custody from the district office of the Congress Party in Kochi.
Private buses were off the road, two-wheelers and stray cars were seen plying.
Mercifully, other tragedies did not occur as of now.
Powerful people can escape the dragnet of the law. They cannot be proceeded against in accordance with the law. For, they can plug the loop-holes anywhere.
CPM state secretary and former Power Minister Pinarayi Vijayan may not be guilty. But that has to be proved in a court of law, according to Congress leaders.
CBI has found charges against him, but it can charge-sheet him only if the Governor accords sanction. The Governor has sent the CBI’s letter to the government, which sent it to the advocate-general. The AG has said there is no need for prosecution. Not only that, he has totally absolved Pinarayi Vijayan.
The cabinet has approved the line of the AG and sent it to the Governor, who is not bound by the advice of the government. But will he take the risk of overshooting the advice of the cabinet? That is a million-dollar question, an answer for which is due on any day now.
This much of action has precipitated Thursday’s hartal. It seems there is no other avenue to register political parties’ protest. Anyway people are the sufferers.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
V S Achuthanandan a mute spectator
By O J George
Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan remains a mute spectator to the goings-on in the SNC Lavalin case as his party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has taken all precautions to save its state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, the ninth accused in the case.
The party is fully controlled by Pinarayi Vijayan, who is supported by national general secretary Prakash Karat.
The CBI has accused Pinarayi Vijayan in the Lavalin case along with others, but the CPM is not game for even trying it in court. It squarely blames the CBI for fabricating a politically motivated case.
The party had from the very beginning stood by Pinarayi Vijayan. Even before Governor R.S.Gavai sought the state government’s opinion, the party swung into action and told the Chief Minister not to do any mischief.
The party wanted the issue to be referred to advocate-general C.P.Sudhakara Prasad, a political appointee, and not to the Law Department of the government.
Now Sudhakara Prasad has given a clean chit to Pinarayi Vijayan and others. The party secretariat has asked the Chief Minister to give this line in reply to the Governor’s query.
Of course, the Governor has his discretion to act in any manner he thinks fit.He would take legal opinion on his own.
Meanwhile, chief secretary K J Mathew has taken ill and is hospitalised. It is not likely that the Lavalin case can be taken up at the next meeting of the cabinet.
If the Governor takes his own decision to give sanction for prosecution, the party will approach the Supreme Court against prosecution.
The Chief Minister of a party like the CPM is in fetters. He cannot act freely, but the party will determine what he should do in matters small and profound.
By O J George
Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan remains a mute spectator to the goings-on in the SNC Lavalin case as his party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has taken all precautions to save its state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, the ninth accused in the case.
The party is fully controlled by Pinarayi Vijayan, who is supported by national general secretary Prakash Karat.
The CBI has accused Pinarayi Vijayan in the Lavalin case along with others, but the CPM is not game for even trying it in court. It squarely blames the CBI for fabricating a politically motivated case.
The party had from the very beginning stood by Pinarayi Vijayan. Even before Governor R.S.Gavai sought the state government’s opinion, the party swung into action and told the Chief Minister not to do any mischief.
The party wanted the issue to be referred to advocate-general C.P.Sudhakara Prasad, a political appointee, and not to the Law Department of the government.
Now Sudhakara Prasad has given a clean chit to Pinarayi Vijayan and others. The party secretariat has asked the Chief Minister to give this line in reply to the Governor’s query.
Of course, the Governor has his discretion to act in any manner he thinks fit.He would take legal opinion on his own.
Meanwhile, chief secretary K J Mathew has taken ill and is hospitalised. It is not likely that the Lavalin case can be taken up at the next meeting of the cabinet.
If the Governor takes his own decision to give sanction for prosecution, the party will approach the Supreme Court against prosecution.
The Chief Minister of a party like the CPM is in fetters. He cannot act freely, but the party will determine what he should do in matters small and profound.
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