The Hindu : No action against Karunakaran group

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

No action against Karunakaran group

By Girish Menon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM MAY 2. The Congress high command's decision not to take action against the Karunakaran faction for its rebellious positions during the Rajya Sabha elections brings to a temporary end to the problems in the Congress.

The AICC general secretary, Ambika Soni, announced in Delhi today the high command's decision not to take any action against the Karunakaran faction for voting against the official candidates, Vayalar Ravi and Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, in the April 14 Rajya Sabha elections.

The decision is more or less in tune with the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony's line of thinking that the developments in the Congress should not be pushed to a flash point in the aftermath of the Rajya Sabha elections.

Even though the official candidates won comfortably, the elections revealed the strength of the Karunakaran faction, whose rebel candidate, Kodoth Govindan Nair, garnered 26 votes.

The major thrust of today's decision is intended to strengthen the hands of the Chief Minister and save his Government from further disruption.

At the same time, the party high command has taken due care to ensure that Mr. Karunakaran did not overplay his hands by extracting an assurance from him that he would not resort to any drastic action that would rock the UDF boat.

Faced with the prospects of his son, K. Muraleedharan, losing his KPCC presidentship and the CPI(M) virtually throwing a wet towel on speculations about an alternative Government, Mr. Karunakaran had to climb down from his rebellious positions.

The party high command's decision also seeks to send the message that the brinkmanship that Mr. Karunakaran had perfected would not work any more.

Whether this message is worth anything would be known only when the time comes for the next round, that is on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections.

Significantly, the AICC package does not have any concrete steps to heal factional wounds.

The strained relations between the KPCC president and the Chief Minister is unlikely to be restored very soon.

In recent days, the KPCC president seems to be taking belligerent positions on various decisions being taken by the Government, making it very clear that he cannot be expected to support the Government any more.

The high command also appears to have been guided by another rationale while deciding on the Kerala problems.

With Assembly elections due in several north Indian States, where the Hindutuva agenda is sure to be a high point of campaign, the Congress does not want to complicate its positions by taking strong action against a person like Mr. Karunakaran, who himself has been subtly giving colours to the high command's cold-shouldering of his faction.

Since Mr. Antony happens to be holding the reins of power, it appears he would have to pay the higher price in the current controversy.

It is because of his uncompromising position that the party high command did not yield to Mr. Karunakaran's pressure. But the Rajya Sabha election has left the UDF a divided house, with the smaller partners now virtually blacklisted for the ambiguous stand they took on supporting the official candidates.

Mr. Antony would also have to reckon with disaffection among his own supporters, many of whom are not happy at the position of the high command in letting the Karunakaran faction go scot-free for its rebellion.

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