The Hindu : KPCC squabbles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002

Opinion

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KPCC squabbles

THE KERALA CHIEF Minister, A. K . Antony, could not have expected a smooth tenure when he took over in May 2001. Familiar with the affairs of his own party, Mr. Antony would have known that his detractors would come from his own party and not from the Opposition. Mr. Antony, it may be recalled, had walked out of the party, leading a protest against K. Karunakaran who had managed to place his own followers at all levels in the party's organisation in the State. Thus, after Mr. Antony's return to the fold, the organisation set-up, at all levels, was turned into a battleground between the followers of the two factions — the "I" group and the "A" group — and there have been several instances in the past when the feuds had even turned into physical fights in full public glare. Mr. Karunakaran could have his way all the while thanks to the support he received from the party high command. This, however, began to change after Sonia Gandhi took over as Congress president. Mr. Antony's choice as Chief Minister after the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) returned to power in the May 2001 election to the State Assembly was a pointer to Mr. Karunakaran's fall from the high command's grace.

This, undoubtedly, placed Mr. Antony in a stronger position within the Congress' Kerala unit and with the nomination of Vayalar Ravi, yet another important leader in the State, as Congress Working Committee member the message was loud and clear: that Mr. Karunakaran should stop sniping at the Chief Minister. Despite having managed positions (in the party and the State Government) for his children — K. Muraleedharan as KPCC chief and Padmaja Venugopal as Chairperson of the Tourism Development Corporation — Mr. Karunakaran seems to be facing isolation. The storm within the party now — involving charges of corruption against the Minister for Tourism — is indeed a fallout of the ongoing feuds between the Congress factions in the State. While it is one thing for the party leaders to engage themselves in such internal squabbles, the developments within the ruling Congress (extending to the ruling UDF at times) cannot be glossed over as mere internal affairs. For instance, the case involving the Tourism Minister was taken to public fora with sections within the Congress Legislature Party allegedly concocting documents that showed the involvement of a member of the State Cabinet in some hawala transactions. This certainly will have to be dealt with as a serious crime and Mr. Antony will be held guilty of failing in his duty if he continues to prevaricate on the issue.

The need for taking stern action against such indulgence by "responsible" members of the State Assembly is all the more necessary given the social convulsions that are now being witnessed in Kerala. Apart from a serious crisis of legitimacy that the established political formations — the Congress as well as the Left parties — have been facing in recent times (caused by the inability of their leaders to treat governance as a project outside the frame of partisan politics), there is no way one could ignore the sense of religious revivalism across the State in the past few years. Instances of violent clashes between members belonging to different religious communities are far more frequent in Kerala now than in the past and the Congress as well as the Left parties cannot pretend to ignore the emergence of the BJP in regions across the State. Given this ground reality, it is now imperative for Mr. Antony and the others in his party to ensure that they spend more time and energy in addressing the task of governance rather than sniping at each other. The Congress high command too will serve the party's interest better by impressing upon the leaders of the various factions in the State unit that such internecine feuds will not be tolerated.

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