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Kerala
By Our Special Correspondent
`Immature' was the term that Mr. Karunakaran used, in the course of a chat with reporters at his residence here today, to describe Mr. Antony's statement in New Delhi that the forgery of a letter from the DGP (Intelligence) implicating the Tourism Minister, K. V. Thomas, in the `hawala' case was the result of a conspiracy against his Government. The same was the word that he used while commenting on the Chief Minister's statement the other day that the Government would eradicate unemployment in 10 years. Prefacing his statements with the observation that it was not a happy Onam that had just passed, the veteran leader said the Government had probably decided not to have any ostentatious celebrations because the situation was not at all rosy. Salary had not been paid in the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation and the treasury payment situation was alarming, he pointed out. Speaking more in innuendoes, Mr. Karunakaran said, ``some people were of the view'' that the forgery row had been kicked up to cover up the Government's failings. Referring to the Chief Minister's conspiracy theory, he said what Mr. Antony had stated in Delhi was not something that a responsible person would say. ``You would understand what I mean after some time. Is this not Kerala?'' he asked. The Congress leader would not also buy the Chief Minister's claim that he was not interfering in the investigation in the forgery case. ``Then why was the investigating officer changed? Weren't there reports that the Additional DGP had been taken off the case?'' he asked. Commenting on reports that the Crime Branch would interrogate the party MLA, Shobhana George, he said there was nothing surprising about it. What was more serious was the failure to observe secrecy in such matters. It would not help crime investigation if matters relating to investigation were to be passed on to the media, he cautioned. Mr. Karunakaran also made it clear that he did not agree with the suspension of Leno Jacob as the Ernakulam DCC secretary. In his opinion, there was nothing wrong in what Mr. Jacob had stated because he was only replying to what Prof. Thomas had said. Asked whether this meant that the action against Mr. Jacob was not correct, Mr. Karunakaran said the question should be posed to the KPCC president. To a query why things could not be sorted out within the faction that he heads since the main persons involved in the current row were all his confidants, he shot back, ``Isn't the Chief Minister my confidant?" Mr. Karunakaran said that when the UDF came to power, the Chief Minister had claimed that the treasury payment crisis would end in three months. Fifteen months had gone by, but the crisis still persisted. Although the Chief Minister had held several rounds of discussions with the Prime Minister, A. B. Vajpayee, and other Central Ministers, the State had not received any substantive assistance from the Centre. The Government should come clean on how much money it had received from the Centre, how much it had spent and why the treasury payment crisis persisted, he said. Commenting sarcastically on reports that the State had sought Rs. 1,022 crores for drought relief work, he said, ``There is something wrong. There will have to be an operation by a good surgeon.''
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