Whither Achuthanandan? Wednesday, Nov 4 2009

Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan

V. S. Achuthanandan appears to be playing a new game to regain his position in party and remain as Chief Minister. The Chief Minister, who had earlier refused to take the cudgels against Constitutional Authority of the Governor, has now turned against the Election Commission of India, another Constitutional authority.

His remarks, questioning the powers of the Commission to deploy Central forces on the polling day, would not please anyone standing for free and fair elections in the country. However, it would sure please some leaders in the party, especially those from Kannur.

Mr. Achuthanandan knows that party State Secretary Pinarai Vijayan may not be able to continue in office after the next party conference, if it adopts the corrective measures proposes by the Polit Bureau. Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has been weakened by the allegations surrounding the actions of his son. So, Achuthanandan could regain his position in the Polit Bureau from which he had been ousted for indiscipline, if he plays the cards well

So, ultimately the only losers would be those who stood by Achuthanandan believing that he would take principled stands.

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The curious case of highly qualified candidates Sunday, Mar 15 2009

The CPI (M) candidate list for Kerala have several candidates with an SFI and DYFI background. So, there was criticism within the party that it had gone for a “campus recruitment” ignoring other feeder organisations. There is allegation that the choice of the new faces were intended to sideline those belonging to the Achuthanandan group.

Half of the 14 candidates are new faces and most of them are in their thirties. What should get special attention is educational qualification of several of the new comers. Sindhu Joy, the SFI national vice president, who is to contest from Ernakulam, holds M. A., M. Phil and B. Ed. degrees. P. K. Biju, SFI national president who is being fielded from Alathur, is a research student at M. G. University. M. B. Rajesh, who is State president of the DYFI and candidate designate for Palakkad, is an M. A. in Economics with degree in Law. Candidate for Kannur K. K. Ragesh, who is the All India Secretary of SFI, is a degree holder in Law. U. P. Joseph, who was SFI State president, holds degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Law. Mr. Joseph is currently the Thrissur unit manager of Desabhimani, is the candidate designate for Chalakudy.

Prolonged studies and student leadership had taken their toll in years. Sindhu is 32 years, Biju is 34, Rajesh is 37, Ragesh  is 38 and Joseph is 43 years of age. Critics allege that some of them had gone for multiple degrees just to keep their positions as student leaders a la Youth Congress men who never aged. We do not have data about the academic brilliance of these candidates. But at least one of them is pursuing research. You cannot call them dishonest or manipulative. They are just being career politicians unlike their predecessors who emerged through party work and service to the workers and the downtrodden.

It has become a general practice in Western democracies to look for qualified persons to occupy important positions. Illiterates normally cannot get to any positions of power in those countries. If present crops of SFI/DYFI leaders win the elections, that would make a difference to Left politics in the country. However, time only can tell whether the result could be positive or negative.

People with high educational qualification need not necessarily be better leaders, administrators or less-corrupt. But it is becoming imperative in modern society that our leaders have good educational background.

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Sparring between CPI(M) and CPI is a storm in a tea cup Thursday, Mar 5 2009

CPI State Secretary Veliyam Bhargavan

The sparring between the CPI and the CPI (M) over the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat will end up as a storm in a tea cup. The spat between party CPI (M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI State secretary Veliyam Bhargavan is intended to hoodwink the voters.

True that some CPI leaders are not comfortable with the PDP’s virtual membership in the LDF. While CPI (M) is no more ashamed of alliance with PAP leader Abdul Nasir Maudhani, whom the BJP describe as the father of religious fundamentalism in Kerala, the CPI don’t want to appear to be too close to PDP.

However, it is notable that the CPI’s minimum demand is that the independent candidate proposed for Ponnani need not contest on party symbol, but should become part of CPI Parliamentary party on victory and be subject to party’s whip. This is not an issue over which the two parties would part ways. Both know that victory in Ponnani is a remote possibility and there is little point in quarreling over whether the winner would be in the CPI Parliamentary party.

CPI’s real grouse is that the Hussein Randathani, proposed by the CPI (M) and PDP, had refused to play ball with the CPI as independent candidate fielded by the CPI. He would become acceptable to CPI if he makes some amends.

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Mayawati’s forey into Kerala Sunday, Dec 28 2008

U. P. Chief Minister Mayawati

Bahujan Samajvadi Party’s forey into Kerala is unlikely to succeed at this juncture. Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had undertaken a well planned tour of Southern States including Kerala. However, she is unlikely to find political space in State politics dominated by the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF)

Because of their ties with BSP at the national level, the Left parties would come under some compulsion to accommodate the BSP in the LDF. However, it is in the interest of the CPI (M) in Kerala that it did not create a competitor for its base among the backward classes. It would not be near impossible for the BSP to press for accommodation, especially when it comes to seat sharing for the Lok Sabha elections, since the party has hardly established any base in Kerala.

The BSP had been fielding candidates in the Lok Sabha elections from Kerala for long. However, its votes had hardly ever exceeded a few thousand votes. Its votes share has been just 0.50 per cent. (This, however, marked a three to four fold increase from vote share in the previous elections when party’s votes hardly ever exceeded the three digit figures.) As of now, she would not be able to improve upon it significantly without getting into coalition politics in Kerala.

The UDF and LDF has fairly good base among dalit communities and they are trying to consolidate that base further. Mayawati has apparently realised that the LDF would not relish her eating into their base. So, she sought to appeal to economically backward among the forward classes by speaking for job reservation for them. In Uttar Pradesh, she had been expanding her appeal to forward classes. However, her stand in favour of reservation for the economically backward classes goes against the basic Constitutional tenet on reservation which is based on social and educational backwardness.

Though reservation based on economic status would appeal to organisations like the NSS, they are not going to put their eggs in Mayawati’s basket unless she demonstrates her prowess in the State. This, as mentioned before, will be an uphill task. The kind of politics that leads to killing PWD engineer by politicians for refusal to pay political contributions is not going to appeal to Keralites. The State leader of the party A. Neelalohitadasan Nadar too lacks a good image.

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Election results and terrorism Monday, Dec 8 2008

Many commentators are quick to say that the Congress victory in three States in the recent elections indicates that the voters were not influenced by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. This may not be fully true.

We know that the tirade against politicians after the Mumbai attacks was mainly an upper class phenomenon. The common on the street shows much more resilience. For they live under one or other type of terror everyday. Thus the average Indian is less panicky about terrorism compared to, say, the Americans. So, he is capable of much more reasoned behaviour. This would have disappointed the terrorists besides the BJP.

The common man does not want India to declare war with Pakistan on the spur of the moment. He would have voted BJP if it was a war that he preferred. For the chances of a BJP going for war are much more than the Congress. He may also be aware that the State governments cannot declare war. They are also not directly responsible for the Central government’s failures.

Many also think that terrorism attacks began to spread from Kashmir to other parts of the country after the demolition of the Babri Masjid and Gujarat massacre. Ordinary man has enough wisdom to understand that bringing BJP to power is not the best way to reduce tensions. If at all the country is to declare war against Pakistan, who else is better than A. K. Antony and Sonia Gandhi to be at the helm of affairs? They would be motivated only by security concerns (and not communal factors).

But, we could still wonder why the common man did not react to the economic crisis and price rise. Well, the crisis is yet to hit the common man. It is the stock market players, realtors, banks and exporters who had been bruised badly. Moreover, farmers and others are now seeing the end of tunnel after the Central government pumped in money to help the farming sector and create rural employment. Those who look beyond their immediate welfare know that the Central Government is not responsible for the crisis.

The lack of voter response to price rise, however, look inexplicable. One reason may be that the real incomes of the people at middle and lower levels have gone up. Consequently, price rise is not a big concern as in the past.

It is notable that the voters have generally gone against regional parties. The Mizo National Front has been swept out. The ordinary Kashmiris has shown with their feet that they are not with the terrorists. (This is an opportunity that the Centre must know miss to settle the Kashmir issue once and for all.)

India is showing some facets of a slowly maturing democracy despite all our problems with the politicians and bureaucrats and increasing inefficiency and corruption in administration. Progress is marred only by lack of choice for the voters.

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Government should not be giving alms Wednesday, Jul 30 2008

The Kerala Government will be providing free Onam kits to about 20 lakh families living below the poverty line during the coming festival season. The total expenditure for this would be Rs. 10 crores. But each family will be getting only Rs. 50 worth of rice and other items. In other words, it could not even amount to a day’s holiday wages.

The imperative of the government in continuing with such scheme in an election year is obvious. However, the government should not be giving alms to the poor. (Let others do it.) It should devise programmes to increase the earning capacities of the poor. The Rs. 10 crore could be better spent for offering, say, scholarships to children of the poor as it did in the case of Muslim girls.

Alms create dependencies and demand will keep on increasing. It is true of even free housing for the poor. The beneficiaries often wait for the government to do the maintenance also. The best example is the One Lakh Housing Scheme. Nearly 50 years after the government gave those free houses to the poor, the government is running lotteries to raise funds for rebuilding the houses.

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Will the Left dump the Congress over nuclear deal? Sunday, Jun 22 2008

The possibilities are high. After being quite for a while on the nuclear deal issue, the Congress and the Left parties are once again started raising the decibel levels. This appears to be for a parting of ways just before the Parliament elections. That does not mean that they would not again come together, if there is scope for forming a government after the elections.

The Left parties have little to gain by fighting the coming Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Congress. They have strength only in Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal where Congress and its allies are their opponents.

If the Left fights the elections with the Congress, CPI (M) has hardly anything to gain. It cannot win a seat in Tamil Nadu with the help of Congress. (The help of Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam- DMK is another matter. That is why there will be more than one round of consultations before the Left pulls out.) The CPI has been practically wiped out in most of the States other than the three. So, it too has not much to gain from the alliance. The RSP has already quit the coordination committee.

The Left knows that the incumbency factor and the people’s dismay over the price rise would work against them if they stay with the Congress. If they part ways, they can create the impression that they are opposed to the Congress and its policies.

The Congress too has little to gain from a truck with the Left. It may get some votes, sometimes crucial, in some pockets in several States across India (excluding Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal). However, the Leftists are not going to vote the BJP under any circumstances. So, in most pockets those votes could be cornered by the Congress and its allies even if there is no formal understanding with the Left.

In short, electoral exigencies will decide the parting of ways of the Left and the Congress rather than differences over nuclear deal with the United States.

Seat Position in Lok Sabha

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