House to have tumultuous session

By Girish Menon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 16. The Kerala Assembly is resuming its session on Monday, with the LDF Government admittedly on the backfoot on the Plus Two issue.

The House had adjourned its session abruptly on June 28 in the face of an indefinite hunger stir launched by four UDF MLAs demanding the resignation of the Education Minister, Mr. P. J. Joseph, and a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge of the High court into the alleged corruption, favouritism, and irregularities in the sanctioning Plus Two courses.

By forcing the adjournment, the Nayanar Government was buying time, hoping that the Opposition's timbre of resistance would snap. The intervening period between June 28 and July 16 has been eventful, with the LDF finding its expectations belied by the High Court verdict on the Plus Two issue. The UDF has not remained silent and had organised a series of campaigns from the district to the State level, to keep the fire of its agitation smouldering till the session resumed.

And the High Court verdict has given it an upper hand as it goes into another round of tumultuous session, asserting throughout that its charges of irregularities had been vindicated by the High Court verdict.

The court had observed that the LDF Government's decisions on the Plus Two schools were irregular, arbitrary, unconstitutional and mala fide. The LDF initially tried to counter the High Court verdict through refined interpretations. But the inanity of its exercise was exposed when the certified official copy of the judgment was published in the media. The Chief Minister, Mr. E. K. Nayanar, and the Education Minister, Mr. P. J. Joseph, appear to have been silenced, while the LDF State committee decided to go in for a plea before the Supreme Court to expunge the High Court's harsh references.

The LDF decision could be viewed as only a kind of rearguard action to cushion the impact of an adverse judgment. It can hope to do little to revert the cardinal portions of the judgment relating to the irregularities in sanctioning the schools. The RSS-sponsored violence in Thiruvananthapuram has helped the ruling front deflect the debate from the real issues relating to the Plus Two issue. This could be seen from the statements of the LDF leaders, who have dwelt at length at a larger conspiracy between the BJP-RSS and the Congress(I) in the Plus Two issue.

But the Congress(I) is cool towards the LDF charges, which had been proved totally baseless in the Lok Sabha elections a few months ago. Wednesday's reckless show by the RSS has only upheld the UDF resolve to stick to the democratic course of agitation, which indeed it has during its 40 months of campaign. They also attribute more significance to the CPI(M) State secretary, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan's and the CPI(M) politburo member and LDF convener, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan's near identical statements criticising the inaction of the State police.

The LDF is likely to bait the BJP-RSS combine in sponsoring a violent agitation on the same Plus Two issue, if only to smother the UDF agitation from getting prominence. As far as the UDF is concerned, it has so far not revealed its strategy. There are several options before it and the UDF joint parliamentary party meeting this evening took stock of the political situation.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. A. K. Antony, told The Hindu that the UDF agitation would continue. "We are sticking to our demands. The Nayanar Government has lost its moral right to continue in office in the backdrop of the High Court verdict," he said. He attacked the LDF decisions on the education sector and the major reforms its was introducing, without as much as a discussion with the either the Opposition parties or with those sections who would be affected by the decisions.

Mr. Antony alleged that the LDF Government was virtually undoing the Kerala model of development by tampering with the education and health sectors. The Plus Two issue and the moves of the Government to take over the Pariyaram Medical College at the cost of providing health care to the common man are just two examples, he said.

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Section  : Southern States
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