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Kerala
By C. Gouridasan Nair
The CPI(M) has traditionally spoken in a single voice when faced with criticism from its detractors. It was normally the lot of the CPI(M) veteran, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, to silence the party's enemies and he used to do this with remarkable panache. What stands out in the sharp exchanges between Mr. Achuthanandan and Mr. Vijayan and worse, in the former Finance Minister, T. Sivadasa Menon's personal explanation yesterday, is a significant shift from the earlier pattern of cohesive response to emerging situations. Insofar as it denotes a change from the tendency of yesteryears to take recourse to regimented response, this is a positive development. But the question that many seem to ask is whether the CPI(M) has to become a Congress as it embraces democracy. The whole controversy arose out of the allegation that Coca Cola was allowed to set up a bottling plant at Plachimada in Palakkad district without the knowledge of the CPI(M) and the LDF State committee. Similar allegation had also come up about the Kochi Industrial Water Supply Scheme, but Mr. Achuthanandan had later come out with the disclosure that the Nayanar Government had not gone beyond clearing a feasibility study. The claim that individual constituents of the LDF, particularly the CPI(M) and CPI, were wholly unaware of the Coca Cola plant being set up at Plachimada seems unconvincing. The more possible scenario is that of the two parties having closed their eyes to its possible environmental impact. Mr. Achuthanandan's outburst at his news conference here the other day had much to do with the humiliation he had to put up with in the Assembly on the concluding day of the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor's Address when he was on the firing line of the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony. At the same time, it also had much to do with the deteriorating relations between rival sections in the State CPI(M) leadership. At the LDF State committee meeting last week, Mr. Achuthanandan had found enough support for his cause from the CPI and RSP which were angry that the Coca Cola plant and the water supply scheme had been pushed through by the LDF Government without the knowledge of the LDF State committee and the individual constituents. Mr. Achuthanandan was the LDF convener when the Nayanar Government was in power. The thought that he had been shortchanged by his own people might have been reason for his outburst at the news conference, particularly since the then Chief Minister, E.K. Nayanar, had pleaded ignorance about what had happened. The LDF State committee had played a leadership role during the tenure of the second LDF Government (1987-91). That was certainly not the case with the 1996-2001 Government. Several departments had turned into political fiefdoms of the party's in control with the result that the rest of the LDF was seldom in the know of what was going on. The CPI(M) itself had raised serious criticism about the manner in which the Agriculture Department, controlled by CPI, had thwarted all the efforts at decentralisation of powers to the grassroots. Similar complaints were there about the Home, Public Works, Education, Excise, Finance and Irrigation Departments. In fact, Mr. Achuthanandan himself had taken up cudgels against the Irrigation Department over the JBIC-aided drinking water scheme when Baby John was in charge of it. The State CPI(M), it seems, is caught in the horns of a dilemma where it is unable to decide one way or the other in matters relating to private investment and entrepreneurship. Even individual leaders seem unable to position themselves with clarity when it comes to such issues, a clear sign of the difficult choices they are being asked to make by a rapidly mutating economic environment. Thus, for instance, while Mr. Achuthanandan thinks that setting up of a bottling plant by Coca Cola has policy implications for the CPI(M) and the LDF, he has had no hesitation in describing the Reliance group's Mukesh Ambani, whose fibre optic cables promise to weave a web across a length and breadth of Kerala in the matter of a few months, as one of the few credible investors to attend the recently-held Global Investor Meet (GIM). On his part, Mr. Vijayan has more or less made it clear that under the conditions obtaining in the country today, even multinationals can set up shop in the State and ply their trade without the State Government being able to put up any resistance to it. His statement that the party could not work itself into a frenzy in matters which could be decided at the level of a District Industries Centre is certainly a bold one, one which he would not have made with such vehemence if not provoked by his party colleague. Mr. Achuthanandan's comment about the Ambanis and Mr. Vijayan's statement about multinationals seem to have a lot in common, though the two still seem to disagree on a whole lot of other issues as the events of the last few days showed.
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