Beastly action by Congressmen to a dead leader

By O.J.George

“Men have lost their reason and it has gone to beasts”. This was a lament made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru once.The goings-on at the Thrissur District Congress Committee office justify this observation.

Khadi-clad Congressmen of various groups clashed among themselves on the question of allowing the body of Youth Congress district general secretary C.A.Sebastian at the DCC office for public veneration.Sebastian had breathed his last in a vehicle accident the other day. Reports say the DCC president was on the vanguard of the arguments against placing Sebastian’s body in the DCC office.“What a great fall it is my countrymen”!

Whatever the reasons, those who showed disrespect to the departed soul should be summarily dismissed from an office which exists in the name of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi et al.Nazi Hitler’s brutalisation of the Jews was dubbed as man’s inhumanity to humanity. What transpired at Thrissur DCC office was nothing but inhumanity.These are days when even dogs are given respect and decent burial.

The khadi-clad beasts should learn a lesson from ordinary mortals who stop there on the road seeing a cortege.There was a press conference organised in Thrissur for explaining the misadventure. Even there the explanation was couched in revolting language.“Something is rotten in the State of Denmark”.But this Denmark is Thrissur DCC.

Today when Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy reached the place, the people blocked him in protest.Oommen Chandy assures action against the culprits within two days.KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala says general secretary Benny Behanan has been entrusted with the task of making an inquiry. Youth Congress president M.Liju suggests that a complaint would be given to the higher-ups.

There may be a lot of explanation by interested parties, but the disrespect shown to a departed soul is inexcusable. Strong action is needed to deal with individuals projecting a bloated image.

One step would prove a giant leap for Muraleedharan

By O.J.George

Kottayam: “A small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind” was the famous comment of Neil Armstrong when he landed on the Moon.

His co-astronaut Edwin Aldrin has not so far compromised to his being the second human being to land on Moon.He feels that he was the first to land, but Armstrong had usurped his position and plagiarised the sentence he had written down for his use.

Anyway, Armstrong has been leading the life of a recluse ever since. And Aldrin has become a drunkard and almost a vagabond, according to various reports.

This is only an aside. What I want is such a small step, but which would result in a giant leap for our K.Muraleedharan, the state president of NCP.What is this small step?

He should find an opportunity to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and tender an unconditional apology for all the misdeeds and misquotes he had committed. Also he should give much publicity to his regeneration.

A glittering world would open up before him in the Congress Party. For some time, he should lie low. Anyway, when he is back in the Congress Party, he would be automatically in the KPCC executive by virtue of his position as one of the former presidents of KPCC.

P.A.Sangma had apologised to Sonia Gandhi most sincerely. Sharad Pawar is hand-in-glove with the Congress Party.His party would ultimately merge into the Congress, by any reckoning.

Muraleedharan had made signal contribution to the Congress Party earlier. He had proved himself to be an efficient organiser.

What keeps him back from making a public apology is his egoism, having been a power centre himself, in the shadow of the-then most powerful father, K.Karunakaran.

A world would be opening up before him, if he dispenses with other tactics and seek direct rendezvous with the Congress.There are at least a few leaders who would want him to work for the Congress Party, irrespective of a lot of opposition from some others.

A section of leaders would like to have his input to work as a balancing factor in the light of KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala aiming to become the undisputed leader.

Kavya Madhavan’s make-belief world did not tally

By O.J.George
Kottayam: The much-hyped marriage of celebrated actress Kavya Madhavan is in totters within a few months of her wedlock.Family lives going berserk are quite common. But the lives of celebrities breaking up are flush with unparalleled curiosity.Thank God the departure is before children are born to them. Otherwise, the children would have been the hardest hit and the worst suffering.Too much expectation on the part of both spouses easily creates discomfort. Dream lives are far from reality. Even reality shows are not the depiction of the real world.Regarding Kavya Madhavan, a lot of stories were given to the fans. That Nishal Chandra being a child artiste himself was not unaware of the make-belief world of tinseldom.Now it seems Kavya Madhavan and Nishal Chandra had not achieved familiarization. There should have been much counseling on the part of elders on both sides about the pitfalls waiting for celebrities in married life.There would be a lot of explaining on the part of both spouses and their relatives regarding the wrong doings of either.One reason now touted is that Nishal Chandra lost his job. Is that a reason for breaking up. “Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds”. After entering into wedlock, cribbing about job loss and lack of income for a much-earned actress looks ridiculous.Definitely there would be other reasons. Naturally, they would explain these things in court.More than that, to tally with the provisions of the law to get the seal of approval for a divorce, either parties would resort to a pack of lies. That is quite common in divorce proceedings.Perhaps, Kavya Madhavan wanted her to be treated like a toy. Or Nishal Chandra was treating her like a toy. There would be unfairness on the part of both.Now that they have no children they can proceed with whatever is their wish. But the fans have been taken aback.

Let there be public audit of every action of officials

By O.J.George

Kottayam: The LDF government sprang a surprise today through the announcement of Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohamed Kutty in the Assembly, freezing the government’s executive order enabling plinth area-wise levy of building tax.

The Congress Party-led Opposition front had given notice of an adjournment motion to discuss the problem.While replying to the notice, when prodded by the UDF leaders, Minister Paloli Mohamed Kutty had no problem accepting the suggestion for freezing the fiat.

This should be the way the ruling party and the Opposition dispensation should function in a democracy, where it should be advantage people.

There should be a neethi (justice) attached to every nyaya (law). When the law proves to be an injustice to the people, there need be no qualms in scrapping it.Opposition pointed out that the hike in building tax was to the tune of eight or ten times the ruling rates. The injustice of hiking the tax by an executive order was also found fault with.

In this connection, one should think about numerous laws and rules framed avowedly for the good of the society.The experience is that the law enforcers often use these pieces of legislation for bribe-taking. Alleged violation can be flaunted only because the rules have been framed by the legislature.Panchayati Raj law was introduced for decentralisation of power.

But the benefits offered by various orders in this connection are being misused very often.Transparency International has grouped Kerala under the least-corrupt state in India.This was because the response to the questionnaire prepared by the organization was poor. The survey does not reflect the actual practice prevailing in various offices.Go to a panchayat, village, or other offices dealing with the issues of the people.

Nothing would work out without greasing the palm of officials concerned.There was a taluk supply officer arrested for taking bribe from a ration shop owner in Kottayam.An entire office staff of mining and geology department in Alapuzha district was caught in a bribe case.One official was lucky. He had taken leave that day. Otherwise he would also have got the share of bribe that day and he would have been behind bars.

Sales tax, Customs and Excise, motor vehicles department and name any number of offices dealing with variegated needs of the people. Nothing will work out without bribing them.One person recounted to me once. He never received bribe in his hands. He would ask people to put the money in the waste paper basket kept nearby.I reveal this because the person is no more.

Why can’t we delegate an administrative audit panel in every office, involving public figures, to review every action against which there are complaints?It should be driven home to the officials that there are people watching them. Gross injustices can be rectified this way.

Parading a Chief Minister as an offender

By O.J.George

Kottayam: What did we see these days in Kerala? A Chief Minister has been paraded in every nook and corner as an offender by his own party bosses.

Nook and corner is figurative, in the sense representative figures were all there in the zonal conferences of the CPM held at Vadakara, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram.

The party Popes were drumming up support among the cadres for the stripping, emasculation and immobilization of V.S.Achuthanandan.

To pour chilly powder on the wounds, Prakash Karat has been saying on and off VS has been an accomplished leader before he was born, “Brutus-is-an-honourable-man”-style.

Nowhere in the world, democratic or totalitarian, this sort of deliberate weakening of a Chief Minister by his own partymen would be tolerated.

They may say this is a party affair. No doubt, it is. But these days when the media have access one way or other about the goings-on within, the humiliating affairs at the closed-door conclaves appear on the public domain.

The most paradoxical and embarrassing aspect of the episode is that the Chief Minister was being ‘attacked’ in his own presence.

This is just like officially reprimanding an offender, kept enclosed in a boxed chamber, and then taken to the execution chamber.

If someone thought VS would step down on his own, not able to suffer the ignominies any more, they are proved wrong. VS intends to keep going. Extreme provocations do not deter him to wait and watch out for an opportune moment.

‘Come September, I love to remember’, may be his silent refrain. Lavalin case is posted for September, when Pinarayi will be officially arrayed as an accused by the CBI in court.

He has to bail himself out in a criminal case.

Then, Pinarayi is trying his best to delay, and if possible to scuttle, the processes against him.

Reports suggest that Pinarayi is probing the possibility of approaching the Supreme Court, appealing against the action of Governor R.S.Gavai in issuing sanction for his prosecution in the Lavalin case disregarding the opinion of the state cabinet.

Perhaps, by seeking vetting by a constitutional bench of the apex court, he could buy more time, if not get himself ejected from the Lavalin dragnet.

Various interests are playing their cards close to their chest, offending and defending, with not just nicks and cuts but with gashes being caused to the state polity using double-edged weapons.

Talk, act and gain with Pakistan

By O.J.George
Kottayam: What does it gain by continuing a war of nerves between India and Pakistan?On the other hand it pays to talk and sort out all issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir question.Of course, it should be made clear that those who unleashed terrorism on the soil of India should meet with exemplary punishment. There is terrorism within Pakistan. That nation is paying a hefty price for the misdeeds it had done earlier. It had created, nurtured and used terrorist organisations with the intention of harming India.Ultimately, when Pakistan started taking steps to deal with some terrorist elements, albeit under pressure put on it by the US, the ultras have turned against it.Recently President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted to the fact that Pakistan had set up, encouraged and harboured terrorist outfits for short-term gains.It seems some light is evident on the other side where democratic processes have to be further strengthened. Now that Nawaz Sharif is exonerated from many charges by the court, which should eventually lead him to participating in the election process, mainstream multi-party functioning should be beneficial.The US is also encouraging Pakistan to come out of the terrorism-cocooned existence. It is well-known that all sorts of Islamic terrorists anywhere in the world have found safe haven in that country.When the leading nations are guiding the country to come out of the self-inflicted malady, there is no point in India turning against it.Also Pakistan cannot pursue terrorist motives as it used to in the past, now that the world is united against network of terrorism in all its ramifications. Talking does not mean that we are conceding. We should take a leaf out of the negotiation processes dealt with by Israel. It comes out winning points out of negotiations.Now that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in India, an atmosphere conducive to engaging anybody, Pakistan included, would be evolving.Leaving Pakistan to its fate, without our taking cogent action, would not be advantageous to its neighbours, particularly India.India’s aloofness would attract more engagement by China, which would not augur well for India.

The elements are against us, Nature’s fury full

By O J George

Kottayam: Lakhs of people in the state, particularly those in the Malabar region, are in the throes of Nature’s fury. No doubt, the elements are against us.

Broadly, we have been tinkering with the natural processes on Planet Earth. The very trajectory of so-called development is exploitation of Nature, which strikes back with full force.

Eons of years ago, there were continental shifts, movement of tectonic plates; mountains occupied positions previously held by the oceans and the oceans moved up the ranges of Himalayas.

Mind you, there were reports of findings of scales of fish in the ice layers of the Himalayas, meaning these places had linkage with the oceans in the past.No doubt these changes had occurred as the Mighty Being, which is Nature, wanted re-adjustments to ensure its own perpetuation.

So far as we manage things to an optimal level, the elements adjust themselves. But when we go overboard, they recoil rather harshly.Hills elsewhere are being demolished, rocks are quarried away to no end, sand-mining is going on at dangerous levels, forests are not let out to wild animals as man makes forays into its depths.

The very mining away of metals from the surface of earth causes imbalance to the solidity of the planet.What we see in the forms of unusual and often untimely and geographically illogical torrential rains, cyclones, gales, tsunamis are all Nature’s re-adjustments.

Nature is responsible for very many aspects and dimensions; human beings are only part of a whole phenomenon.

Coming to the monsoon fury, now the Malabar area is reeling under the devastations caused by torrential rains, landslides, overflowing rivers, uprooting of trees, razing of houses.Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, and parts of nearby districts have borne the brunt of the devastation.

Inter-state routes are blocked in the Walayar stretch on the one hand and Munnar reach in Idukki district on the other.Kerala is dependent on Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for vegetables and a few other essential commodities.

Prices have picked up owing to short supply of essential items.Now the priority should be for saving the lives of people from falling houses, landslips, overflowing rivers and streams etc.Relief camps are being run in various places. People have no other go. Afterwards, they have to be properly rehabilitated. Assistance from the Centre is essential.

Quirk of fate waiting for many a partner of the LDF

By O.J.George
Kottayam: The fate of small parties in any front is dependent on the robustness of the main party leading them. When the principal protagonist crumbles, minuscule ones sticking on it also perish.

Otherwise, the pygmies should mobilise strength through their own union elsewhere, jointly or severally, or by re-arrangement of political affiliations.

In Kerala, re-arrangements outside of UDF and LDF are unthinkable. BJP is not that reckonable, for it cannot be part of a regime in waiting. What could any party do if it cannot be part of governance sooner or later?

Situations change in other states, but not in Kerala. A few years ago, it was unthinkable that a BJP dispensation would come to power in Karnataka. Maybe because Yeddyurappa had gained considerable sympathy from the people when he was cheated by Deve Gowda. The promised half term of governance was denied to him by Deve Gowda. Anyway the change in favour of the BJP was swift.

In Kerala, the NCP group led by former KPCC chief K.Muraleedharan is in a quandary. There are no takers for him. He went to the extent of telling his leader Sharad Pawar that if he is the problem, he would stand back for a rapprochement with the UDF.

In a different way Kadannappally Ramachandran suffered isolation, but he could pull on by clinging on to the CPM by retaining the old Congress(S). It is do or die for him with the LDF.

During the Lok Sabha elections, the CPI stood up against the CPM regarding seat allocation. Mutual distrust or squabbles within the CPM, the CPI had to bite the dust.

Judging from the precarious condition in which the CPM has fallen into, owing to surging groupism between V.S.Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan, the LDF partners have a bleak future cut out for them, now that the schism would only worsen.

As for Kerala Congress (Joseph) group, there seems to be a quirk of fate. Strong interests within the party had written off P.J. Joseph when he got embroiled in a sex scandal, public professions of loyalty notwithstanding.

After the rout in the Lok Sabha elections, the party has to mull about its fate in the Assembly elections due in 2011.

Mons Joseph and Surendran Pillai would be struggling, for they have lost their firm grounds. Mons Joseph was playing many cards, one using an acolyte who claims to have clout in the Orthodox Church. Lok Sabha election results have shown that everything is lost. Jugglery will not pay. And if Thomas Chazhikadan comes opposing him in Kaduthuruthy, Mons Joseph’s fate would be sealed.

Surendran Pillai, after hobnobbing with P C Thomas group, has little left to keep afloat in the Assembly polls.

But by a quirk of fate, P.J.Joseph, who was considered a lost soul in politics by many, may be the only survivor.

Ningal Enne Communist Aakki (You made me Communist)

By O.J.George
Kottayam: This was the slogan for the down-trodden in olden times. This was also the title of a play that ploughed through the length and breadth and the hearts and minds of the people of Kerala, espousing the cause of the Communist.

The tortured, tormented, marginalised, dispossessed beings of nothingness all clung to this classic cry.V.S.Achuthanandan was one among them and he worked for these people.

Now, when he is demoted and made to sit below the ranks of small fries of yore, opposing the principle against which he had fought a bitter battle throughout his life, he may be, while furrowing a new path, shouting from the roof-top, “You made me Communist”.Others have become un-Communist.

Perhaps, Marxist ideologue P.Govinda Pillai has to be admired for his don’t- care attitude while breathing down the ignominies of a series of demotions and still vouching for the title, “I will die a Communist”.

There is no forum below the one he is holding now in the party. He is a member of the branch committee, after having been serially stripped membership in the central committee, state committee, district committee, and area committee.

But once in a while he makes classic comments like “E M S was not that great an intellectual” and then subjects himself to correction, which lands him up in the branch committee, a pedestrian position for a well-read person.

Achuthanandan has also been demoted four or five times for various crimes of omission and commission. But he is a fighter, as K.R.Gowri Amma rightly said.

Now for a few days he would mull over the predicament. Meanwhile, he would make his mind clear to the people.

Today it was like that. His fight against corruption is unrelenting. Shanti Bhooshan argued on behalf of him in the Supreme Court seeking to expedite the Idamalayar corruption case against former Power Minister R.Balakrishna Pillai.

And Balakrishna Pillai has commented the case is not against him, but against Pinarayi Vijayan, figuratively.Which means Achuthanandan’s fight against corruption is not over and his views on Lavalin case are not corrigible.

The Opposition has been provoking him in the Assembly to make some statement about his demotion.

The first salvo was an adjournment motion stating the absence of collective responsibility and miserable failure of administration on account of the squabbles in the CPM.

The latest was an adjournment motion highlighting the attack on those who shouted slogans in favour of the Chief Minister. Achuthanandan is keeping mum.

Meanwhile, the party higher-ups are in Thiruvananthapuram to evolve proper strategy at the state secretariat and the state committee to save the party from perdition arising from groupism.

They forget for a moment that groupism is a fact of political life here. It is not like removing Somnath Chatterjee from the party.

Removing V.S.Achuthanandan will not solve the problems. It will only vitiate matters further.

As for Achuthanandan, since his followers in positions in the party as well as government would not be amenable to moving out with him, he may have to suffer.Achuthanandan can move out only if the CPI, the RSP etc follow him.

They support his cause, but when it comes to parting of ways, they may go back and cite the larger cause of fight against imperialism, colonialism, feudalism and all to remain with the official line as an omnibus entity.

Why not nominate K.J.Yesudas to Rajya Sabha?

By O.J.George
Kottayam: Our musician par excellence, K.J.Yesudas, would be a befitting nominee representing Kerala in the Rajya Sabha as a Presidential nominee.

It is now time for the nation to mull about the nominees for the Rajya Sabha, which has 250 members of whom 12 are nominated by the President.

The 12 members are nominated on the basis of their special knowledge and practical experience in fields such as literature, science, art, social service etc.

By adopting the principle of nomination in Rajya Sabha, the Constitution has ensured that the nation must also receive services of the most distinguished persons of the country who have earned distinction in their field of activity, many of whom may not like to face the rough and tumble of the election.

By nominating them to Rajya Sabha, the State not only recognises their merit and confers honour on them, but also enables them to enrich the debates by their expertise and knowledge that they have in different areas.

The first batch of 12 nominated members represented a galaxy of talented persons of proven merit.They were: scholar and educationist Dr. Zakir Husain, renowned historians Dr. Kalidas Nag and Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, national poet Maithilisharan Gupta, well-known Gandhian author Kakasaheb Kalelkar, eminent scientist Professor Satyendranath Bose, social worker N.R. Malkani, renowned exponent of classical dance forms Rukmini Devi Arundale, Gandhian scholar and teacher, Dr. J.M. Kumarappa, legal luminary Dr. Alladi Krishnaswami, famous stage actor and cine star Prithviraj Kapoor and eminent medical scientist Major-General S.S. Sokhey.

Speaking about the nominated members, Jawaharlal Nehru said in the House of the People on 13 May 1953:“…The President has nominated some members of the Council of States who, if I may say so, are among the most distinguished, taking everybody in Parliament altogether – it is true, distinguished in arts, science, etc. – and our Constitution in its wisdom gave that. They do not represent political parties or anything, but they represent really the high watermark of literature or art or culture or whatever it may be”.

Since the Rajya Sabha was constituted in 1952, in all, one hundred and five members have so far been nominated to the House.

Among these nominated members we find scholars, jurists, educationists, historians, scientists, poets and litterateurs, engineers, economists, administrators, artistes and social workers of proven ability and outstanding merit.From Kerala, poet G.Sankara Kurup was a member during 1968-72. There were others.Lata Mangeshkar was a member of Rajya Sabha this way.

Yesudas does not need an introduction. He has enthralled the people of Kerala and the nation through his carnatic recitals, Carnatic-Hindustani mix and sheer film songs in thousands.

He is also known for his contribution to national integration and communal harmony.A re-rendition of “jaathi bhedam matha dwesham ethumillathe…….” (without differences of caste, hatred of religions, here is the sojourn of fraternal living) will reverberate in Parliament and through it to the whole world, makikng it a better place for people to live in.

Ground realities do not favour VS taking the plunge

By O.J.George

Kottayam: The ground realities do not favour Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan to take drastic steps like going out of the CPM in protest against his removal from the politburo.

The support he gets from the people is nothing but mob hysteria for the time being. Once he is out of power positions, the mob would not continue to follow him on a decisive level.


Among the hard-core party cadres, his support is minimal. And the minimum support base may further erode once he finds himself out of the party.

Age and health factors do not favour an aggressive posture being successful on his part. There has been a rule that those who complete 80 years of age should be kept out of the politburo. Achuthanandan is past 80. He may not find himself within the PB again.

The pity is that in the party hierarchy within the Cabinet, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan remains a PB member and Chief Minister Achuthanandan out of it. The stance of Kodiyeri should have an upper hand, in the normal course.

Some of the staunchest supporters of VS had not kept up the momentum or looked askance at him these days.

Minister S.Sharma today met the Chief Minister at Cliff House and urged him not to go in for drastic action. It seems he urged the CM to wait and watch and then take a decision.

Minister P.K.Gurudasan had been a staunch supporter earlier. But these days he has not been that keen. Once he told the state committee VS should be unburdened of the heavy weight of many responsibilities.

Many of his supporters among the second or third rung leadership would not be with him if he decides to part ways. In fact, there may not be a single leader to be with him, when he is out.

As for media support, it is the most ephemeral thing one can bank on. Media hoopla is nothing but monkeying around a person and an issue. There is no fixity. They jump from one issue to another.

Politicians may be insincere, but media, ie the fourth estate, are worse, they don’t care a bit about eternal wedlock with a person or issue.

It is a slippery slope for V.S.Achuthanandan for now. But then who knows something may crop up like new revelations in Lavalin investigation.

V S is lucky, he can continue as Chief Minister, lame-duck or otherwise, even when there was near-total rout in the Lok Sabha elections. In Congress, A.K.Antony had not got that benefit when he was Chief Minister.

Dislodging VS as CM failed, solution found more problematic

By O.J.George
Kottayam: Pinarayi roared, Isaac and company bleated: “ Remove VS from Chief Ministership.”

Pinarayi faction has been placing stories, there would be a solution once and for all. Even today, M A Baby commented after conclusion of the central committee meeting, all problems have been solved.

They are sadly mistaken. An Achuthanandan who has been punished and who continue to be the Chief Minister would be a worse threat to their ideological stance.

Had VS been removed from Chief Ministership, Pinarayi faction would have utilised the administration to its utmost.

True, Achuthanandan has been trapped and cornered with regard to very many issues. His hands were tied by the party state secretariat and state committee where the Pinarayi group has brute majority.

For some time, VS has not been invited to crucial functions of the party. The most important one was the birth centenary celebrations of EMS Namboodiripad. Every other Tom,Dock and Harry participated in various sessions of the celebrations.

When VS used to visit districts for attending government functions or otherwise, no one from the party met him at guest houses or other places where he stayed. He was being isolated using the brute force of the party apparatus.

VS was silently suffering all these humiliations. What do others want him? He should toe their line on Lavalin. But he had made his point clear on all occasions. He would not fall in line. Even today he is not prepared to do so.

Suffering the slings and arrows from the party, it seems, he would continue to function as the Chief Minister and take positions which would be problematic for the rival group.

But then, Pinarayi Vijayan knows it for a fact. Once he is out of the post of party secretary, the acolytes would leave him and stand by the new incumbent. For him also, this was a do or die issue.

For VS, simply leaving the party would not offer him the opportunities to cleverly make moves that would be against the interests of entities which have become clear.

True, all these theatrical performances would not benefit the people at all. But they have no choice now. They would react at the opportune moment.

V S Achuthanandan being eased out?

By O.J.George
Kottayam: Now it is clear. Action is sure against Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan. The politburo of the party which met before the central committee has come to the conclusion that VS has been consistently flouting party discipline. The PB found him severely guilty.

On the other hand, state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has got soft treatment. Pinarayi was found lacking in leading the party unitedly. His stance immediately preceding the Lok Sabha elections was erroneous.

But the politburo was not amenable to amending its position regarding Lavalin issue. It is on this question that V S Achuthanandan may find it impossible to continue as Chief Minister even if the party saves him the post.

The party may demote him from the politburo to the central committee and allow him to continue as Chief Minister.

But can he retract all he had said and stood for regarding Lavalin when the central leadership is opposed to his view?

Last time, he was reported to have told general secretary Prakash Karat that he would not change his stance on Lavalin even if the party decides the worst possible decision.

V S Achuthanandan who can claim his seniority next only to E.M.S.Namboodiripad is being eased out.

Even if he is not removed from Chief Ministership, circumstances are such that he won’t find it tolerable to continue on ideological grounds.

Meaningful meeting with Gowri Amma

By O.J.George

Kottayam: After 15 years, V.S.Achuthanandan went to K.R.Gowri Amma, of course to greet her when she turned 90.

But the gesture was quite significant, even though Achuthanandan did not make any controversial mention.

But reading between the lines, there was something etched in his speech. After he hailed the contributions of Gowri Amma as a minister in various stints of LDF government, he referred to her functioning as a minister in the UDF government.

Let the people assess the fact whether she got intensified recognition and praise or not while she was in the UDF, he observed.

The rider about one comment escaped from media analysis. Achuthanandan urged Gowri Amma to continue to serve the people with the same verve as she used to have while she was in the CPM.

Even if everybody else got lost out on the meaningful comment, Gowri Amma retorted she did not leave the CPM, but she was ousted. Now she has her own party and she does not have to look for another.

Let the gesture of Achuthanandan be noticed. He went to her house at Chathanad and ate out from the plantain leaves placed for her by Gowri Amma. He broke from the routine vegetarianism and tasted the choicest fish curry.

These days his bete noires in the CPM were keeping him out of functions in which he should have been legitimately part of. EMS birth centenary function was one event among many.

He was not called in when the CPM leaders discussed issues with the CPI leaders at the AKG Centre the other day. The meaning was clear, VS was being kept out. That message was being sent out to the cadres by the state party leadership.

The rival faction wants VS to simply pop off from the scene after the central committee takes whatever decision on July 11 and 12.

The indications given out by VS in this regard are clear. He would not vanish into thin air just as Nripen Chakroborty had disappeared or ex-Speaker Somnath Chatterjee may retire into nothingness.

VS would get fora from nowhere and be in the limelight. His rivals want him to toe their line, which on all accounts is not possible for him. Even though his rivals have the party apparatus with him in full, they cannot decimate him.

The call to Gowri Amma could be a pointer to what would follow if drastic action is taken against him at the central committee.

Will politics in Kerala be the same after a fortnight?

By O J George
Kottayam: Sweeping political developments are on the way in Kerala. The CPM-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front cannot remain static in the light of various issues coming to the fore.

The CPM is a boiling cauldron, with Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan ostensibly leading a fight against corruption on the one hand and state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan holding the party apparatus within his fist.Nobody can make an inroad into his influence in the organisational set-up in the state. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has been forced to toe his line more or less.

Whatever be the decisions coming out of the deliberations in the central committee meeting on July 11 and 12, the party is not going to be the same again.

LDF partners are not happy about the ways of the CPM, for the partners are not consulted on key issues. Decisions are thrust on them for concurrence.CPI general secretary A.B.Bardhan has been airing his strong views against the high-handedness of the CPM in West Bengal and Kerala where the leftists had to bite the dust in the Lok Sabha polls.

It seems the CPI is not happy about the move to take action against Achuthanandan. But it is yet to be seen what sort of action the CPI will take if things take a serious turn after the CPM CC meetings.

Janata Dal(S) is a divided lot. Last time when Deve Gowda hobnobbed with the BJP in Karnataka, Kerala’s M.P.Veerendra Kumar could simply take out the state unit from the Gowda bandwagon.

Now things are different. Veerendra Kumar has brute majority in the state organisation. But two MLAs are with the LDF.Ultimately, Veerendra Kumar has to move towards the UDF.

When such was the situation, NCP’s state president K.Muraleedharan is not prepared to wait any more for hitching the outfit with the UDF. All his efforts and the wishes of his father, K.Karunakaran, to ensure the entry of Muraleedharan into the Congress or the UDF had gone awry.

Now Muraleedharan is pressing NCP national president Sharad Pawar to push the proposal forward with Congress high command to ensure entry of NCP into the UDF in Kerala. Pawar reportedly agreed with Muraleedharan that there should be a UPA-type alliance in Kerala.

A.V.Thamarakshan of the erstwhile RSP has come into the UDF via JSS of K.R.Gowri Amma.In the circumstances, the UDF is a sought-after coalition for being with the power- possible.

The CPM can take any decision now, for it knows it too well that it cannot change the alternate reign system for the LDF and the UDF in Kerala.

Whatever be the organisational decisions of the CPM now, it does not stand to lose much.All the same, why should there be stagnation in the politicalscape? Let there be movement forward. For human history has been made by people and leaders who always were active, on the move.

CPM, take notice, Congress is out to tackle you!

By O.J.George
Kottayam: The Left front, particularly the CPM, was severely bashed up in the Lok Sabha elections.

Perhaps, groupism in the CPM and disunity among the LDF partners have hogged the headlines as these developments offered sauce for the media.

But the crux of the political connotation is that the CPM is going to be battered severely at levels of at least Kerala and West Bengal.

The defeat in West Bengal should be viewed more seriously than the destruction being brought about to the party because of personal wranglings in Kerala.

For over 30 years, the CPM has been the undisputed rulers in West Bengal. Every nook and corner was their pocket-borough.

Now West Bengal people are running away from it from many places, if the indications of the Lok Sabha elections are any pointers.Less than two years from now, Assembly elections would be held in Kerala, which has the precedents of alternate reign by the UDF and LDF.

There is no reason why the alternate governance pattern should not be repeated.But that is not the case with West Bengal which is going to the polls this year, along with some other states like Maharashtra.

Now Bengal has two stalwarts in the Union Cabinet, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee.

The Railway Minister has already bestowed her bounty on her state.Apart from trains and all, she has allotted a railway coach factory which would be located within the area of riots-marred Lalmarh.This should provide a lot of employment opportunities to the youth there directly and indirectly.

The Finance Minister has given a largesse to the state to rehabilitate the cyclone-ravaged areas.This budget provision of Rs 1,000 crore is over and above the National Calamity and Contingency Relief fund.

Note it well. Pranab Mukherjee has made an announcement that banking and insurance sectors would remain with the public sector.

The Left would have taken on the Congress and its ally, Trinamool Congress, in West Bengal had there been overt announcements about these sectors going private.

Everyone knows that more liberalized measures are on the way. But this official announcement in the budget would gag the Left from making frontal attacks against the Congress and TMC.

Moreover, the Finance Minister put thrust on agriculture sector and assured devolution of funds to the ryots one way or other.

The rural folks should also be somewhat happy. The poor people get Rs three a kilo rice or wheat. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme would ensure some money trickling to the labourers.

The Congress party and its government are going ahead with a strong bonding.

Take the case of the CPM. Its general secretary, Prakash Karat, is supporting Kerala’s party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan is dead against Pinrayi’s doings.

There are members in the politburo and the central committee lined up pro and con Achuthanandan as well as Pinarayi Vijayan.

West Bengal members play the neutral card.

Any solution, preferring one to the other would bring in doom.The situation is precarious for the CPM and consequently the Left front, both in Kerala and West Bengal.

Mind you, the CPM has an arduous task before it to keep itself keeping actively afloat, let alone retaining power.

Pranab, the seasoned politician targeting electorate

By O.J.George

Kottayam: The seasoned politician in Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee came out in the open when he presented the budget proposals in Parliament today with thrust on farm sector and development of infrastructure in the country.

The farmers outnumber any other category of avocation. And infrastructure development would offer increasing employment opportunities.

An allocation of Rs one lakh crore has been set apart for infrastructure development.
A lot of concessions have been offered to those in the agriculture sector. Additional loans to the tune of Rs 3.25 lakh crore would be issued in the farm sector.

The aim is to achieve four per cent growth in the agriculture sector, which earlier was less than two per cent.

Interest concessions are there for those who repay farm loan installments. The national rural employment guarantee project got Rs 39,000 crore more, which is expected to generate 120 lakh job opportunities.

Poverty would be reduced by half by 2014 and economic growth would be targeted for 9 per cent achievement.

Twenty-five kilos of rice or wheat would be given at Rs three per kilo to poor people, ie people living below the poverty line.

At the same time, middle income groups were not ignored. Income tax payment ceiling was raised to Rs 1.60, Rs 1.90 for women and Rs 2.40 lakh to senior citizens.

Fringe benefit tax has been removed.

The package to tackle recession amounts to Rs 40,000 crore.

Interest on educational loans would be provided with subsidy.

Banking and insurance would be retained in the public sector, which assertion removes the scare among certain sections of the society.

A fine reading of certain announcements would reveal that the welfare measures would create a sense of security for the electorate. Assembly elections are round the corner in West Bengal, Maharashtra etc.

Food security, employment opportunities and concessions for educational loans etc would relieve the poor people.

A sum of Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated for rehabilitation of cyclone ravaged West Bengal people.

Even though he speaks about disinvestment and liberalization, the thrust lacks sheen, and that accounts for the fall in index BSE, National Stock Exchange etc.

Pranab is really targeting the electorate.

Leaders scrape through, but the party is losing

By O.J.George

Kottayam: Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan has been trying very hard in the party to see that action is taken against state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, but so far his efforts have not been fruitful.
Even today he tried to drive the point home at the concluding day of the two-day special politburo meeting convened in Delhi that corruption issue should be dealt with seriously.

But how his efforts would bear fruits is questionable now that general secretary Prakash Karat has told the PB that no action need be taken against Pinarayi Vijayan.

Of course, there are reports that Sitaram Yechuri, Manik Sarkar and M.K.Pandhe wanted action against Pinarayi Vijayan.

The PB was not able to arrive at a consensus on the issue of action against Pinarayi Vijayan.

But action should be taken against Achuthanandan for breaching party discipline. This view seems to have found inclusion in the proposals being sent to the central committee being held on July 11 and 12.

There may be some action against Achuthanandan like reprimand, censure, demotion to the central committee.

Action like suspension would necessitate V S to demit office of the Chief Minister. Nobody can conceive of a situation under which Achuthanandan should resign.

That will only generate more problems than the solution found by the party.

In effect, conceding some action against Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan (both have been suspended from the PB earlier and then reinstated), there may not be change in posts.

The party will go on discussing the issues from different angles, but the persons who are responsible for the problems would continue. Here the leaders win, but the party loses.

Janata Dal (S) groups parting ways with clear perception

By O J George

Kottayam: It is good that the Janta Dal(S) groups have gone about expressing themselves quite clearly about their respective stance.

The moment M.P.Veerendra Kumar was denied a Lok Sabha seat, it was clear he would not affiliate with the LDF anymore.

He has contributed to some extent for increasing the margin of victory of UDF candidates in the election.

Now he cannot remain part of the LDF, which he says, had ousted him and his group.

Now Deve Gowda, who always loves to remain with opportunities for grabbing power, is naturally with the LDF, whose government has roughly two more years to complete its five-year tenure.

Although Mathew T Thomas had to quit as decided by the party state unit, he and another MLA, Jose Thettayil, want to remain with the LDF.

There are three other MLAs who staunchly remain with the Veerendra Kumar group.

Now to retain MLAship of the rival group, they have to take disciplinary action against each other like mutual expulsion. Otherwise, they would invite action like disqualification on account of anti-defection law.

I am happy about one thing. Both groups have expressed their views quite clearly. There is no dilly-dallying. In democracy, it should be like that.

If they cannot continue together, let them part ways. Veerendra Kumar bidding adieu to Deve Gowda is nothing new.

The whole state unit of Janata Dal(S) had abandoned Deve Gowda when his group allied itself with the BJP for forming a government in Karnataka by Kumaraswamy, son of Deve Gowda. It is another matter Deve Gowda ditched the BJP subsequently, without offering half of the agreed tenure to the BJP.

Clarity, and not evasion, should be the strong-point of political way forward.

Will the parleys in Delhi kickstart total change?

By O J George

Kottayam: This week will be crucial for Kerala politics, particularly for LDF, its main party and government, and Janata Dal (S) which is splitting.

The special politburo meeting of the CPM gets started in Delhi today. The failure of two stalwarts, Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan and party’s state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, both politburo members, to move together in the matter of governance and running of party affairs has been the single major factor that brought discredit to the party, the coalition and consequent burden on the people.

It is for the party to decide whether there should be a major surgery or administer “cough syrup” to manage the hiccups.

If nothing is done and the affairs allowed to run themselves out, it would be a torment to the people, for they are the actual sufferers of indecision and disputes over major developmental projects.

The CPM is a party of think tanks, albeit ideologically enslaved, and so they should solve the problem. The CPI has come out in the open castigating the unilateral ways of the big brother. RSP has called for decisive steps to correct the distortion.

Janata Dal(S) has already split, it has only to be formalised. The parting of ways of Deve Gowda and Veerendra Kumar would be clear from today’s national executive meeting being held in Delhi.

Veerendra Kumar group may join the UDF and the rival splinter may remain with the LDF.

But what is crucial is whether Achuthanandan will be asked to step down, Pinarayi may be directed to abdicate the state secretary’s post, or both of them may be asked to give up the respective posts, or whether Achuthanandan may be asked to behave and allowed to remain as Chief Minister, even as Pinarayi may be told to unseat himself and face the court battle in the Lavalin corruption issue.

Asking Achuthanandan to go is easy, but the consequences would be far reaching. Asking Pinarayi to relinquish the post is difficult as the state party is with him lock, stock and barrel.

If the politburo can only ask Pinarayi to give it a helping hand by remaining offline until the court clears him. Will Pinarayi and his adamant supporters oblige the central leadership to save the party? Will Achuthanandan arrive at any compromise?

The Left partners have all understood the plight in which they are wallowing. Their prodding would also be crucial for the front captain to kickstart total change.