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.