BRP BHASKAR
Gulf Today
As the third anniversary of Kerala's Left Democratic Front (LDF) government approaches, sectarianism in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is in full swing again and the knives are out.
Neither Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan nor his party appears to be in a mood to celebrate the anniversary, which falls on next Monday.
Much will, of course, depend on the results of the Lok Sabha elections, which are expected on Saturday (March 16), the date set for counting of votes.
Both Achuthanandan and state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had said before the elections that the results would be a verdict on the state administration too.
Early in the campaign, LDF spokesmen asserted the alliance would do better than last time, even though there was little room for improvement since it had made an almost clean sweep in the Lok Sabha elections of 2004.
Even after polling they continued to exude optimism in public, but the CPI-M's post-poll exercises are a giveaway.
Party committees at various levels have been busy assessing vote losses and fixing responsibility for them.Evidently an effort is on to find scapegoats for likely reverses.
Several party committees have reportedly concluded that Achuthanandan's supporters worked against the party nominees in several constituencies.
With Pinarayi Vijayan's supporters asking for Achuthanandan's scalp, the sectarian feud in the party, which re-surfaced recently, has entered a new stage.
According to media reports, at a meeting of the party's state secretariat on Friday, almost all members demanded Achuthanandan's resignation.
The demand came after Pinarayi Vijayan, in a report, said that Achuthanandan had voiced his personal views on the Lavalin issue at the Cabinet meeting. The members said Achuthanandan had flouted party discipline in giving expression to view different from those of the party.
Ahead of last week's cabinet meeting to consider the Advocate General's advice to turn down the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) request for permission to prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan in the Lavalin case, the CPI-M state committee, at a meeting held in the presence of general secretary Prakash Karat, had asked the government to accept it.
At the cabinet meeting, Achuthanandan reportedly threatened to convey to the Governor his personal view that the CBI's request must be granted.
However, he dropped the idea after NK Premachandran, minister belonging to the Revolutionary Socialist Party, pointed out that such a step would lead to the fall of the government as it meant loss of collective responsibility.
Media reports about the demand for Achuthanandan's resignation in the state committee caused a flurry of activity in New Delhi.
After telephonic contacts with the state leadership, the national office said Achuthanandan's exit was not discussed.
At the instance of the national office, the state party formally denied reports about demands for the chief minister's resignation.
However, it did not contradict reports that the state leadership would complain to the national leadership about Achuthanandan's conduct and demand his ouster from the politburo.
According to published accounts, Labour Minister PK Gurudasan was among those who asked the chief minister to step down if he was not ready to abide by party decisions. MC Josephine was the only Achuthanandan loyalist who did not join the chorus for his resignation.
By cracking the whip the state leadership has been able to isolate Achuthanandan almost totally. But he appears to be ready to fight alone if necessary.
The recrudescence of sectarianism in the state party poses a severe challenge to the national leadership. In earlier interventions in the inner-party feud, it made it clear that it wants Pinarayi Vijayan and Achuthanandan to continue in their respective posts. It is this formula that the state leadership is challenging.
The infighting is likely to intensify further after the election results are announced. If the LDF fares badly, the state leadership is sure to lay the blame at Achuthanandan's door and renew the call for his resignation.
Achuthanandan, on his part, can be expected to argue that the party lost because of the poor image resulting from the state secretary's implication in a corruption case and the electoral understanding with a communal party like the People's Democratic Party of Abdul Naser Ma'dani.
While the LDF constituents cannot question the CPI-M's right to choose its leader, the party cannot effect a change of chief minister without considering their views also.
The CPI, the second largest constituent of the alliance, has made it clear that it does not favour Achuthanandan's exit.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Political leaders rise in defence of working class
BRP BHASKAR
Gulf Today
In this year's May Day perorations, leaders of both the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF), cutting across party lines, stoutly defended the state's trade unions which had come under sharp criticism from the High Court the previous day.
LDF leaders, additionally, took up cudgels against the powerful Catholic Church which recently announced plans to make its presence felt in the labour sector.
In a pastoral letter, read at more than 3,000 churches during Sunday services a week ago, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), which claims to represent 5.3 million Catholics, had asked the faithful to strengthen the labour unions under its control and set up labour self-help groups.
Since 1960 the Church has been running an organisation called the Kerala Labour Movement.
In 1979 the KCBC set up a labour commission with the proclaimed objective of mobilising the vast body of unorganised workers in the state.
The plan to revitalise these outfits is apparently a response to the growing hostility between the Catholic Church and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which heads the LDF.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), affiliated to the CPI-M, is the largest apex labour organisation in the state.
In an immediate response to KCBC announcement, its state secretary, MM Lawrence, said hundreds of Catholics were members of CITU unions and they would ignore the Church's call.
Addressing a May Day rally at Kottayam, CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan came down heavily on attempts to divide the working class on the basis of caste and religion.
Religious consciousness had not come to the aid of workers anywhere, he said. It was working class consciousness that gave them strength.
The KCBC is not the only organisation operating in the trade union area with a sectarian agenda.
Like other political parties in the state, the Indian Union Muslim League, too, has a trade union, the Swathanthra Thozhilali Union (STU-independent labour union) and a peasant organisation, the Swathanthra Karshaka Sangham (SKS-independent peasant organisation).
India's largest apex trade union organisation, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, belongs to the Sangh Parivar, which is the engine of Hindutva ideology.
CITU-affiliated unions have been working with BMS-affiliated unions in the state disregarding their links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which they condemn as communal outfits.
On May Day eve, a division bench of the high court, while hearing petitions filed by the Cochin Port Trust and container owners seeking a declaration that the strike by trade unions which hit work at the container terminal was illegal, made some caustic observations on the trade unions.
It said unions were acting against the state's interests. They were aware only of their rights, not of their responsibilities. They had evolved a work culture which was not suitable for the state.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, addressing a rally at Thiruvananthapuram, described the court's observations as 'unfortunate.'
At the same time, he asked the unions to introspect and remove their shortcomings, if any.
He said the government's approach was one of finding solutions to labour disputes through tripartite proceedings. The unions were cooperating with such initiatives.
One issue which did not receive adequate attention in the public exchanges is the relationship between political parties and trade unions.
Many problems on the labour front can be traced to the parties' control over unions.
With each party setting up its own trade union, there is multiplicity of unions in all industries and institutions.
Inter-union rivalry often affects the working of institutions. To make things worse, parties sometimes use unions to further their political interests.
Although all trade union organisations subscribe to the "one industry, one union" formula in principle, they do not sincerely cooperate in its implementation.
Labour unrest is not a major problem in Kerala today. However, investors still tend to shy away because of the reputation for militancy, which the state's trade unions had acquired by resorting to measures involving physical harassment of management personnel at an earlier period.
An unsavoury practice that originated at that time, known as "nokkukooli" (which means looking- on wages), is still in vogue in areas where head-load workers have strong unions. It involves paying union members who simply look on while others work.
Last year, Pinarayi Vijayan condemned "nokkukooli" as an immoral practice. "Aren't there workers in our state who claim wages for just observing others work?" he asked rhetorically. "Are we not endorsing their demand? Why should we watch this plunder helplessly?"
A year later, "nokkukooli" still prevails.
Gulf Today
In this year's May Day perorations, leaders of both the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF), cutting across party lines, stoutly defended the state's trade unions which had come under sharp criticism from the High Court the previous day.
LDF leaders, additionally, took up cudgels against the powerful Catholic Church which recently announced plans to make its presence felt in the labour sector.
In a pastoral letter, read at more than 3,000 churches during Sunday services a week ago, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), which claims to represent 5.3 million Catholics, had asked the faithful to strengthen the labour unions under its control and set up labour self-help groups.
Since 1960 the Church has been running an organisation called the Kerala Labour Movement.
In 1979 the KCBC set up a labour commission with the proclaimed objective of mobilising the vast body of unorganised workers in the state.
The plan to revitalise these outfits is apparently a response to the growing hostility between the Catholic Church and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which heads the LDF.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), affiliated to the CPI-M, is the largest apex labour organisation in the state.
In an immediate response to KCBC announcement, its state secretary, MM Lawrence, said hundreds of Catholics were members of CITU unions and they would ignore the Church's call.
Addressing a May Day rally at Kottayam, CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan came down heavily on attempts to divide the working class on the basis of caste and religion.
Religious consciousness had not come to the aid of workers anywhere, he said. It was working class consciousness that gave them strength.
The KCBC is not the only organisation operating in the trade union area with a sectarian agenda.
Like other political parties in the state, the Indian Union Muslim League, too, has a trade union, the Swathanthra Thozhilali Union (STU-independent labour union) and a peasant organisation, the Swathanthra Karshaka Sangham (SKS-independent peasant organisation).
India's largest apex trade union organisation, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, belongs to the Sangh Parivar, which is the engine of Hindutva ideology.
CITU-affiliated unions have been working with BMS-affiliated unions in the state disregarding their links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which they condemn as communal outfits.
On May Day eve, a division bench of the high court, while hearing petitions filed by the Cochin Port Trust and container owners seeking a declaration that the strike by trade unions which hit work at the container terminal was illegal, made some caustic observations on the trade unions.
It said unions were acting against the state's interests. They were aware only of their rights, not of their responsibilities. They had evolved a work culture which was not suitable for the state.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, addressing a rally at Thiruvananthapuram, described the court's observations as 'unfortunate.'
At the same time, he asked the unions to introspect and remove their shortcomings, if any.
He said the government's approach was one of finding solutions to labour disputes through tripartite proceedings. The unions were cooperating with such initiatives.
One issue which did not receive adequate attention in the public exchanges is the relationship between political parties and trade unions.
Many problems on the labour front can be traced to the parties' control over unions.
With each party setting up its own trade union, there is multiplicity of unions in all industries and institutions.
Inter-union rivalry often affects the working of institutions. To make things worse, parties sometimes use unions to further their political interests.
Although all trade union organisations subscribe to the "one industry, one union" formula in principle, they do not sincerely cooperate in its implementation.
Labour unrest is not a major problem in Kerala today. However, investors still tend to shy away because of the reputation for militancy, which the state's trade unions had acquired by resorting to measures involving physical harassment of management personnel at an earlier period.
An unsavoury practice that originated at that time, known as "nokkukooli" (which means looking- on wages), is still in vogue in areas where head-load workers have strong unions. It involves paying union members who simply look on while others work.
Last year, Pinarayi Vijayan condemned "nokkukooli" as an immoral practice. "Aren't there workers in our state who claim wages for just observing others work?" he asked rhetorically. "Are we not endorsing their demand? Why should we watch this plunder helplessly?"
A year later, "nokkukooli" still prevails.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A small extension of service to government employees
BRP BHASKAR
Gulf Today
The government of Kerala has surreptitiously offered a small extension of service to its employees by pushing the date of retirement to the last day of the financial year in which they attain the age of superannuation.
Kerala has the highest life expectancy in the country. Ironically, it also has the lowest retirement age.
At the time of independence, the retirement age of government employees was 55 years throughout the country. That was enough to assure them a reasonably long working period since life expectancy at that time was only 32 years.
Thanks to the success of various governmental and non-governmental programmes, over the last six decades infant mortality rate in the state dropped dramatically and public health improved significantly.
Today, life expectancy in the state is higher than in the rest of the country.
At the time of the 2001 census, life expectancy at birth in Kerala was at 71.7 years for males and 75.0 years for females as against 64.1 years for males and 65.4 years for females in the country as a whole.
In 1966, when Kerala was under President's rule, the state government, taking note of the rising longevity, raised the age of retirement of government employees to 58 years.
A coalition government, headed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which came to power the following year, reduced it to 55 years again. This was done to create immediate vacancies in the government and facilitate fresh recruitment.
Quite naturally youths welcomed the step. Since then the governments at the Centre and in the other states have raised the retirement age to 58 or even 60 years.
Nowhere is it below 58 years. Central government employees now retire at 60. In Assam and Uttar Pradesh, too, the retirement age is 60 years.
School teachers in Kerala, like government employees, retire at 55. The retirement age of teachers in Madhya Pradesh is 62 years, which is higher than that of government employees.
No government in Kerala has had the courage to increase the retirement age since the move will be unpopular with young jobseekers. The state suffers a double loss on this account.
On the one hand, the state incurs a huge expenditure by way of pension payments to employees for long periods. On the other, it loses the services of persons who have work experience and are physically and mentally fit to work for several years more.
Even government doctors retire at 55 in Kerala. This has proved beneficial to the private medical colleges and hospitals that have sprung up in the state in recent years.
These institutions are able to find their requirement of doctors and teachers from among the recently retired. Pension and salary payments account for about 75% of the Kerala government's non-plan expenditure.
In the past 10 years, government employees' salary payments have risen from Rs22.16 billion to Rs80.55 billion a year and pension payments from Rs7.53 billion to Rs40.54 billion a year.
Early this year, a government-appointed public expenditure review committee proposed that the retirement age of government employees and teachers be raised from 55 to 58 years immediately and to 60 years later on.
It said this would release a significant part of the government revenue for productive use. It pointed out that often the government paid pension to retiring employees for 25 to 30 years. It was not good for healthy persons to receive payment without doing any work.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan immediately shot down the proposal. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said, "No political party has come forward to support the demand for a higher retirement age."
Some organisations of government employees have called for upward revision of the retirement age. However, no political party backs the demand.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India, the CPI-M's youth wing, opposes the demand on the ground that it will restrict employment opportunities.
There are 4.26 million jobseekers on the live registers of the employment exchanges in the state. Of them, 2.31 million are women. The government's annual intake of 18,000 can make little difference to joblessness of this magnitude.
The move to shift the retirement date of employees from their dates of birth to the last day of the financial year was announced by Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac in this year's budget speech. To mollify the youth, he has said some 12,000 government jobs will still be on offer this year.
Gulf Today
The government of Kerala has surreptitiously offered a small extension of service to its employees by pushing the date of retirement to the last day of the financial year in which they attain the age of superannuation.
Kerala has the highest life expectancy in the country. Ironically, it also has the lowest retirement age.
At the time of independence, the retirement age of government employees was 55 years throughout the country. That was enough to assure them a reasonably long working period since life expectancy at that time was only 32 years.
Thanks to the success of various governmental and non-governmental programmes, over the last six decades infant mortality rate in the state dropped dramatically and public health improved significantly.
Today, life expectancy in the state is higher than in the rest of the country.
At the time of the 2001 census, life expectancy at birth in Kerala was at 71.7 years for males and 75.0 years for females as against 64.1 years for males and 65.4 years for females in the country as a whole.
In 1966, when Kerala was under President's rule, the state government, taking note of the rising longevity, raised the age of retirement of government employees to 58 years.
A coalition government, headed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which came to power the following year, reduced it to 55 years again. This was done to create immediate vacancies in the government and facilitate fresh recruitment.
Quite naturally youths welcomed the step. Since then the governments at the Centre and in the other states have raised the retirement age to 58 or even 60 years.
Nowhere is it below 58 years. Central government employees now retire at 60. In Assam and Uttar Pradesh, too, the retirement age is 60 years.
School teachers in Kerala, like government employees, retire at 55. The retirement age of teachers in Madhya Pradesh is 62 years, which is higher than that of government employees.
No government in Kerala has had the courage to increase the retirement age since the move will be unpopular with young jobseekers. The state suffers a double loss on this account.
On the one hand, the state incurs a huge expenditure by way of pension payments to employees for long periods. On the other, it loses the services of persons who have work experience and are physically and mentally fit to work for several years more.
Even government doctors retire at 55 in Kerala. This has proved beneficial to the private medical colleges and hospitals that have sprung up in the state in recent years.
These institutions are able to find their requirement of doctors and teachers from among the recently retired. Pension and salary payments account for about 75% of the Kerala government's non-plan expenditure.
In the past 10 years, government employees' salary payments have risen from Rs22.16 billion to Rs80.55 billion a year and pension payments from Rs7.53 billion to Rs40.54 billion a year.
Early this year, a government-appointed public expenditure review committee proposed that the retirement age of government employees and teachers be raised from 55 to 58 years immediately and to 60 years later on.
It said this would release a significant part of the government revenue for productive use. It pointed out that often the government paid pension to retiring employees for 25 to 30 years. It was not good for healthy persons to receive payment without doing any work.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan immediately shot down the proposal. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said, "No political party has come forward to support the demand for a higher retirement age."
Some organisations of government employees have called for upward revision of the retirement age. However, no political party backs the demand.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India, the CPI-M's youth wing, opposes the demand on the ground that it will restrict employment opportunities.
There are 4.26 million jobseekers on the live registers of the employment exchanges in the state. Of them, 2.31 million are women. The government's annual intake of 18,000 can make little difference to joblessness of this magnitude.
The move to shift the retirement date of employees from their dates of birth to the last day of the financial year was announced by Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac in this year's budget speech. To mollify the youth, he has said some 12,000 government jobs will still be on offer this year.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Kerala awaits outcome of CPI-M's poll gamble
B.R.P. BHASKAR
Indo-Asian News Service
One question nags political parties and pundits alike after the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala: Will the Communist Party of India-Marxist's gamble pay off or will the communal chickens come home to roost?
All 20 constituencies of the state went to the polls on April 16. Since counting of votes will take place only on May 16, there is an agonizing wait of a month before the voting machines yield their secret.
Elections in the state are essentially trials of strength between the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front. In the assembly elections, the people vote the two fronts to power alternately.
While in the panchayat polls, the LDF has an edge over the UDF, in the Lok Sabha elections, the UDF generally fared better than the LDF until 2004, when the LDF bagged 18 of the 20 seats. The Indian Federal Democratic Party, a partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, got one seat. The lone UDF seat went to the Indian Union Muslim League. For the first time, the Congress drew a blank.
The popular explanation for the LDF landslide of 2004 is that the people turned away from the UDF, disgusted by the prolonged group war in the Congress and the cynical poll-eve patch-up. The pendulum swung so widely that the UDF was almost wiped out.
Several Muslim groups, unhappy over the League's soft response to the demolition of Babri Masjid, backed the LDF in 2004 and in the assembly elections of 2006. The lesson the CPI-M drew from these elections was that Muslim support can make a difference to its fortune.
The Kerala party, which has to alternate in power with the Congress-led alliance, envies the record of the West Bengal party, which has been in office continuously for three decades. For some years, it has been looking out for new partners who can help it achieve the dream of unbroken run of power.
When former chief minister K. Karunakaran walked out of the Congress with his followers, state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was ready to welcome him into the LDF. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan set his face against it. As the national leadership sided with him, Vijayan's plan fell through.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, Pinarayi Vijayan identified People's Democratic Party (PDP) chairman Abdul Naser Mahdani as a partner who can help boost the LDF's prospects. A fiery orator, Mahdani shot into prominence in the 1990s with a virulent campaign on the Babri Masjid issue. He was arrested in connection with a series of bomb blasts in Coimbatore shortly before a visit by BJP leader L.K. Advani in 1998, and remained in jail without bail or parole for more than nine years. On acquittal in 2007, he emerged with a martyr's halo.
Vijayan struck a deal with Mahdani under which the PDP extended support to the LDF in 19 constituencies in exchange for its adopting a candidate of his choice in Ponnani. Achuthanandan set his face against this deal, too, but this time the national leadership sided with Vijayan.
General secretary Prakash Karat apparently endorsed Pinarayi Vijayan's electoral scheme with a view to maximizing the number of seats the party can win in Kerala.
Of the party's 43 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha, 40 came from its strongholds of West Bengal (26 out of a total of 42), Kerala (12 out of 20) and Tripura (2 out of 2). Local tie-ups brought in three seats -- two from Tamil Nadu and one from Andhra Pradesh.
Since Singur and Nandigram were sure to hurt the party's prospects in West Bengal, it wanted to retain the gains of 2004 in Kerala at all costs. Playing on Muslim sentiments a la Abdul Naser Mahdani appeared to offer the best chance in this regard. To maintain secular balance, the party brought on to its platform Janapaksham, a BJP splinter group, also.
The PDP deal ran counter to the CPI-M's proclaimed policy of not having any truck with communal parties, which was never pursued strictly anyway. A breakaway faction of the predominantly Christian outfit, the Kerala Congress, is a constituent of the LDF. The Indian National League, a splinter of the Muslim League, enjoys the benefits of LDF membership without being a constituent.
Muslims constitute 25 percent of Kerala's population and Christians 19 percent. The common perception that Communists are anti-religion has limited the party's appeal among both groups. The piggy-back ride may have helped the LDF to gain Muslim votes but it may have come with a high price tag.
The CPI-M took away two seats of its alliance partners to put through its electoral strategy. The CPI, which resented the gifting of its Ponnani seat to Mahdani's nominee, was pacified by offering it Wayanad instead. The Janata Dal-Secular, which was left with no seat after the CPI-M set up its own candidate in Kozhikode, vent its anger by working against the LDF.
Analysts are certain to scrutinize the poll results closely to see how the Hindu majority, from which the CPI-M draws the bulk of its support, has responded to the party's pampering of the PDP.
Indo-Asian News Service
One question nags political parties and pundits alike after the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala: Will the Communist Party of India-Marxist's gamble pay off or will the communal chickens come home to roost?
All 20 constituencies of the state went to the polls on April 16. Since counting of votes will take place only on May 16, there is an agonizing wait of a month before the voting machines yield their secret.
Elections in the state are essentially trials of strength between the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front. In the assembly elections, the people vote the two fronts to power alternately.
While in the panchayat polls, the LDF has an edge over the UDF, in the Lok Sabha elections, the UDF generally fared better than the LDF until 2004, when the LDF bagged 18 of the 20 seats. The Indian Federal Democratic Party, a partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, got one seat. The lone UDF seat went to the Indian Union Muslim League. For the first time, the Congress drew a blank.
The popular explanation for the LDF landslide of 2004 is that the people turned away from the UDF, disgusted by the prolonged group war in the Congress and the cynical poll-eve patch-up. The pendulum swung so widely that the UDF was almost wiped out.
Several Muslim groups, unhappy over the League's soft response to the demolition of Babri Masjid, backed the LDF in 2004 and in the assembly elections of 2006. The lesson the CPI-M drew from these elections was that Muslim support can make a difference to its fortune.
The Kerala party, which has to alternate in power with the Congress-led alliance, envies the record of the West Bengal party, which has been in office continuously for three decades. For some years, it has been looking out for new partners who can help it achieve the dream of unbroken run of power.
When former chief minister K. Karunakaran walked out of the Congress with his followers, state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was ready to welcome him into the LDF. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan set his face against it. As the national leadership sided with him, Vijayan's plan fell through.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, Pinarayi Vijayan identified People's Democratic Party (PDP) chairman Abdul Naser Mahdani as a partner who can help boost the LDF's prospects. A fiery orator, Mahdani shot into prominence in the 1990s with a virulent campaign on the Babri Masjid issue. He was arrested in connection with a series of bomb blasts in Coimbatore shortly before a visit by BJP leader L.K. Advani in 1998, and remained in jail without bail or parole for more than nine years. On acquittal in 2007, he emerged with a martyr's halo.
Vijayan struck a deal with Mahdani under which the PDP extended support to the LDF in 19 constituencies in exchange for its adopting a candidate of his choice in Ponnani. Achuthanandan set his face against this deal, too, but this time the national leadership sided with Vijayan.
General secretary Prakash Karat apparently endorsed Pinarayi Vijayan's electoral scheme with a view to maximizing the number of seats the party can win in Kerala.
Of the party's 43 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha, 40 came from its strongholds of West Bengal (26 out of a total of 42), Kerala (12 out of 20) and Tripura (2 out of 2). Local tie-ups brought in three seats -- two from Tamil Nadu and one from Andhra Pradesh.
Since Singur and Nandigram were sure to hurt the party's prospects in West Bengal, it wanted to retain the gains of 2004 in Kerala at all costs. Playing on Muslim sentiments a la Abdul Naser Mahdani appeared to offer the best chance in this regard. To maintain secular balance, the party brought on to its platform Janapaksham, a BJP splinter group, also.
The PDP deal ran counter to the CPI-M's proclaimed policy of not having any truck with communal parties, which was never pursued strictly anyway. A breakaway faction of the predominantly Christian outfit, the Kerala Congress, is a constituent of the LDF. The Indian National League, a splinter of the Muslim League, enjoys the benefits of LDF membership without being a constituent.
Muslims constitute 25 percent of Kerala's population and Christians 19 percent. The common perception that Communists are anti-religion has limited the party's appeal among both groups. The piggy-back ride may have helped the LDF to gain Muslim votes but it may have come with a high price tag.
The CPI-M took away two seats of its alliance partners to put through its electoral strategy. The CPI, which resented the gifting of its Ponnani seat to Mahdani's nominee, was pacified by offering it Wayanad instead. The Janata Dal-Secular, which was left with no seat after the CPI-M set up its own candidate in Kozhikode, vent its anger by working against the LDF.
Analysts are certain to scrutinize the poll results closely to see how the Hindu majority, from which the CPI-M draws the bulk of its support, has responded to the party's pampering of the PDP.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Governmental machinery comes alive after poll break
BRP BHASKAR
Gulf Today
THE administrative machinery, which came to a grinding halt as election fever gripped Kerala, has started moving again. However, an air of uncertainty prevails in the state as the election results remain unknown.
The state went to the polls on Thursday, along with more than 100 other constituencies in different parts of the country. Counting of votes will take place only on May 16 after the completion of all five phases of polling.
The state secretariat wore a deserted look during the past few weeks as election work kept ministers and officials busy. Most ministers were out of the capital, overseeing the campaigns of their parties in the various districts. They were so preoccupied that even the garrulous among them, who habitually hog attention with controversial remarks, were out of the media for several days.
Several thousand government officials had been drafted for election duty. This resulted in dislocation of normal activity in many offices.
Statements recorded by the police in the course of investigation of suspected terrorist links found their way into the media during the campaigm. The names of People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Abdul Naser Ma'dani, and his wife Sufia figured in several of them.
Sufia Ma'dani's name came up also in the statements of persons whom the police had interrogated in connection with the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus at Kalamassery, near Kochi, when Ma'dani was a Coimbatore jail.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) accused the state police of ignoring these statements because of the camaraderie between the PDP and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which heads the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).
As Advocate-General CP Sudhakar Prasad delayed legal advice on the Central Bureau of Investigation's request for permission to prosecute CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, there was no forward movement in the Lavalin case.
However, on poll eve, the Lavalin scandal cast its shadow in an unexpected manner. Acting on an application filed by an advocate, a judicial magistrate directed the police to register a case against Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Pinarayi Vijayan in connection with the reported disappearance of an official file relating to the Lavalin deal.
As soon as polling was over, the police initiated action on the sensitive matters which it had soft-pedalled so far. A team headed by the police commissioner of Kochi began investigation of the allegations against Sufia Ma'dani. It is also expected to re-investigate the Kalamassery bus burning case.
At Thiruvananthapuram, the police registered a case in connection with the disappearance of the Lavalin file. Among the accused are Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Pinarayi Vijayan. The charges against them include theft, destruction of evidence and conspiracy.
Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan figure in the case by virtue of the positions they held when the State Electricity Board signed the Lavalin deal. Vijayan was Power Minister at the time and Balakrishnan was a member of the Electricity Board.
There is room to doubt if the state police can be relied upon to conduct a credible investigation when the Home Minister himself is an accused. It is likely that at some stage the court will be called be examine this matter.
The state is now witnessing some political fall-out of the elections. Offices of the Janata Dal (Secular) have been attacked at several places.
A constituent of the LDF, the Janata Dal (S) had withdrawn its nominee from the cabinet in protest after the CPI-M took away its Kozhikode seat. It also asked its cadres to work for the defeat of LDF candidates.
Observers believe the attacks on the party's offices were in retaliation for the hostility it showed during the elections. At least two of the five JD (S) legislators had broken with the state leadership and stood by the LDF.
Pinarayi Vijayan has indicated that one of them may be rewarded with a minister's post. This may be part of a strategy to wean away JD (S) legislators who are willing to desert state party president MP Veerendrakumar.
There is speculation that Congress (S) leader Ramachandran Kadannapalli may also be inducted into the cabinet. The party, which has only one member in the Assembly, was not given representation when the LDF ministry was constituted. Re-thinking on the subject is indicative of a desire to salvage the LDF which came under severe strain during the elections.
Gulf Today
THE administrative machinery, which came to a grinding halt as election fever gripped Kerala, has started moving again. However, an air of uncertainty prevails in the state as the election results remain unknown.
The state went to the polls on Thursday, along with more than 100 other constituencies in different parts of the country. Counting of votes will take place only on May 16 after the completion of all five phases of polling.
The state secretariat wore a deserted look during the past few weeks as election work kept ministers and officials busy. Most ministers were out of the capital, overseeing the campaigns of their parties in the various districts. They were so preoccupied that even the garrulous among them, who habitually hog attention with controversial remarks, were out of the media for several days.
Several thousand government officials had been drafted for election duty. This resulted in dislocation of normal activity in many offices.
Statements recorded by the police in the course of investigation of suspected terrorist links found their way into the media during the campaigm. The names of People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Abdul Naser Ma'dani, and his wife Sufia figured in several of them.
Sufia Ma'dani's name came up also in the statements of persons whom the police had interrogated in connection with the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus at Kalamassery, near Kochi, when Ma'dani was a Coimbatore jail.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) accused the state police of ignoring these statements because of the camaraderie between the PDP and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which heads the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).
As Advocate-General CP Sudhakar Prasad delayed legal advice on the Central Bureau of Investigation's request for permission to prosecute CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, there was no forward movement in the Lavalin case.
However, on poll eve, the Lavalin scandal cast its shadow in an unexpected manner. Acting on an application filed by an advocate, a judicial magistrate directed the police to register a case against Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Pinarayi Vijayan in connection with the reported disappearance of an official file relating to the Lavalin deal.
As soon as polling was over, the police initiated action on the sensitive matters which it had soft-pedalled so far. A team headed by the police commissioner of Kochi began investigation of the allegations against Sufia Ma'dani. It is also expected to re-investigate the Kalamassery bus burning case.
At Thiruvananthapuram, the police registered a case in connection with the disappearance of the Lavalin file. Among the accused are Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Pinarayi Vijayan. The charges against them include theft, destruction of evidence and conspiracy.
Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan figure in the case by virtue of the positions they held when the State Electricity Board signed the Lavalin deal. Vijayan was Power Minister at the time and Balakrishnan was a member of the Electricity Board.
There is room to doubt if the state police can be relied upon to conduct a credible investigation when the Home Minister himself is an accused. It is likely that at some stage the court will be called be examine this matter.
The state is now witnessing some political fall-out of the elections. Offices of the Janata Dal (Secular) have been attacked at several places.
A constituent of the LDF, the Janata Dal (S) had withdrawn its nominee from the cabinet in protest after the CPI-M took away its Kozhikode seat. It also asked its cadres to work for the defeat of LDF candidates.
Observers believe the attacks on the party's offices were in retaliation for the hostility it showed during the elections. At least two of the five JD (S) legislators had broken with the state leadership and stood by the LDF.
Pinarayi Vijayan has indicated that one of them may be rewarded with a minister's post. This may be part of a strategy to wean away JD (S) legislators who are willing to desert state party president MP Veerendrakumar.
There is speculation that Congress (S) leader Ramachandran Kadannapalli may also be inducted into the cabinet. The party, which has only one member in the Assembly, was not given representation when the LDF ministry was constituted. Re-thinking on the subject is indicative of a desire to salvage the LDF which came under severe strain during the elections.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Caught between parties, poverty, Chengara Dalits can't go out to vote
E. P. UNNY
Indian Express
Barely a hundred kilometres from where K R Narayanan began his journey to become the country's first Dalit President, Dalits - even in thousands - can't easily step out and vote on April 16. The exit from their 21-month-long settlement in Harrison Malayalam's plantation is routinely blockaded by the rubber estate's union activists, mainly of CITU. If they have to get out through the adjoining forest land, they will have to brave surprise encounters with patrolling gangs. Their big fear is that if they leave for polling en bloc, their meagre possessions could vanish. Worse, they may be stopped forever from returning to their newfound homeland - over which, to begin with, they have no legal rights.
Nearly 5,000 mobilised Dalit families from all over the state marched into the Chengara estate in August 2007 not to stay put. According to their leader Laha Gopalan, it was primarily to assert Dalit rights over suitable land anywhere in the state. In the first flush of the Achuthanandan-led Left Government, the famously crusading Chief Minister was expected to do a good turn. Instead, he chose to endorse his party that led a trade union assault on the encroachers. With the Congress eventually warming up to the anti-Left plank and the BJP eyeing first-time votes, their unions backed out (at least, officially) leaving the Left to take on the Dalits. There is a court order for eviction but "without bloodshed". So both camps are waiting for a bloodless coup.
All this is common knowledge in the state. The problem starts when you try to actually go in and find out more. Across the estate road five women workers are sitting on plastic chairs to block your way. A man on a bike appears to do the tough talking.
"No way you can go in and do your one-sided sob story!"
"What's your side of the story?"
Silence.
He is equally tight-lipped about his identity. It is not difficult to identify his bike though. It is registered in the name of the plantation.
Finally, after a half-hour trek through the thin forest when you reach the squatters, you see a touristy Kerala turned upside down. The scenic slopes are dotted with shacks - bare earth for floors, plastic sheets for roofs and shaky rubber wood for support. An uncluttered expanse of slums that has begun to function like countryside homesteads.
Some sneak out to do odd jobs in the neighbourhood; some stay back, grow vegetables, rear livestock, slaughter the near-dead rubber trees and sell the sap to buyers that include more than willing CITU men. The squatters are turning into settlers, a few armed with mobile phones to beat the siege.
Barring the odd drunken outburst, it is a composed lot that makes easy conversation in a variety of Malayalam dialects that reveals the demographic spread. This all-Dalit mini-Kerala clearly prefers an uncertain community slum life to the random distress of low-skill job hunts from their scattered three-cent households, allotted by the Government decades ago. This, says C P John, an early Chengara activist from the Congress-led front and an erstwhile CPI(M) man, is a basic flaw in Kerala's land reforms. Homelessness was addressed, not landlessness. Will Oommen Chandy do what Achuthanandan refuses to? Unlikely, feels B R P Bhaskar, the media veteran who lent his voice to this Dalit cause. He finds Kerala's coalition fronts that mirror each other far too assured of alternating stints at power to think out of the box.
Dalit leader Laha Gopalan, however, is far from resigned. He is out to get the state's 10 per cent Dalits to block-vote against the Left and for the Congress front. His local target is Ananta Gopan, the CPI(M) candidate in Pathanamthitta to which Chengara belongs. But why settle for Congressman Anto Antony when Mayawati has fielded a candidate here? Gopalan dismisses BSP's K K Nair as an upper-caste white elephant incapable of garnering a thousand votes.
Meanwhile, the sole saving grace from the Left Government is an ambulance stationed outside the estate. The colony has lost nine lives and a 10th man is lying seriously ill in a local hospital. However, he won't go unattended unlike in Nandigram. (Source: Yahoo! Finance)
A cartooning professional since 1977, E P Unny has worked with the Hindu, Sunday Mail, the Economic times and is now the chief Political Cartoonist with the Indian Express Group. Between Cartoons, he travels and sketches. He has drawn and writing graphic novels in Malayalam and is now working on one in English.
Indian Express
Barely a hundred kilometres from where K R Narayanan began his journey to become the country's first Dalit President, Dalits - even in thousands - can't easily step out and vote on April 16. The exit from their 21-month-long settlement in Harrison Malayalam's plantation is routinely blockaded by the rubber estate's union activists, mainly of CITU. If they have to get out through the adjoining forest land, they will have to brave surprise encounters with patrolling gangs. Their big fear is that if they leave for polling en bloc, their meagre possessions could vanish. Worse, they may be stopped forever from returning to their newfound homeland - over which, to begin with, they have no legal rights.
Nearly 5,000 mobilised Dalit families from all over the state marched into the Chengara estate in August 2007 not to stay put. According to their leader Laha Gopalan, it was primarily to assert Dalit rights over suitable land anywhere in the state. In the first flush of the Achuthanandan-led Left Government, the famously crusading Chief Minister was expected to do a good turn. Instead, he chose to endorse his party that led a trade union assault on the encroachers. With the Congress eventually warming up to the anti-Left plank and the BJP eyeing first-time votes, their unions backed out (at least, officially) leaving the Left to take on the Dalits. There is a court order for eviction but "without bloodshed". So both camps are waiting for a bloodless coup.
All this is common knowledge in the state. The problem starts when you try to actually go in and find out more. Across the estate road five women workers are sitting on plastic chairs to block your way. A man on a bike appears to do the tough talking.
"No way you can go in and do your one-sided sob story!"
"What's your side of the story?"
Silence.
He is equally tight-lipped about his identity. It is not difficult to identify his bike though. It is registered in the name of the plantation.
Finally, after a half-hour trek through the thin forest when you reach the squatters, you see a touristy Kerala turned upside down. The scenic slopes are dotted with shacks - bare earth for floors, plastic sheets for roofs and shaky rubber wood for support. An uncluttered expanse of slums that has begun to function like countryside homesteads.
Some sneak out to do odd jobs in the neighbourhood; some stay back, grow vegetables, rear livestock, slaughter the near-dead rubber trees and sell the sap to buyers that include more than willing CITU men. The squatters are turning into settlers, a few armed with mobile phones to beat the siege.
Barring the odd drunken outburst, it is a composed lot that makes easy conversation in a variety of Malayalam dialects that reveals the demographic spread. This all-Dalit mini-Kerala clearly prefers an uncertain community slum life to the random distress of low-skill job hunts from their scattered three-cent households, allotted by the Government decades ago. This, says C P John, an early Chengara activist from the Congress-led front and an erstwhile CPI(M) man, is a basic flaw in Kerala's land reforms. Homelessness was addressed, not landlessness. Will Oommen Chandy do what Achuthanandan refuses to? Unlikely, feels B R P Bhaskar, the media veteran who lent his voice to this Dalit cause. He finds Kerala's coalition fronts that mirror each other far too assured of alternating stints at power to think out of the box.
Dalit leader Laha Gopalan, however, is far from resigned. He is out to get the state's 10 per cent Dalits to block-vote against the Left and for the Congress front. His local target is Ananta Gopan, the CPI(M) candidate in Pathanamthitta to which Chengara belongs. But why settle for Congressman Anto Antony when Mayawati has fielded a candidate here? Gopalan dismisses BSP's K K Nair as an upper-caste white elephant incapable of garnering a thousand votes.
Meanwhile, the sole saving grace from the Left Government is an ambulance stationed outside the estate. The colony has lost nine lives and a 10th man is lying seriously ill in a local hospital. However, he won't go unattended unlike in Nandigram. (Source: Yahoo! Finance)
A cartooning professional since 1977, E P Unny has worked with the Hindu, Sunday Mail, the Economic times and is now the chief Political Cartoonist with the Indian Express Group. Between Cartoons, he travels and sketches. He has drawn and writing graphic novels in Malayalam and is now working on one in English.
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