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CPI(M) offers support to Karunakaran

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI SEPT. 30. The CPI(M) today said it was ready to support the senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, should he try to set up an alternative Government.

But, according to the Kerala secretary of the CPI(M), Pinarayi Vijayan, his party would not join such a Government. "There is no question of us joining a Government without a proper mandate,'' he told mediapersons here today.

Mr. Vijayan, who is in the Capital to participate in the CPI(M)'s Central Committee meeting, said the party would have no reservations in joining hands with Mr. Karunakaran should such a situation arise.

"After all, we did ally with A. K. Antony in 1980 to form a government,'' he said, maintaining that circumstances and not individuals would determine the party's future course of action.

Besides being willing to gloss over the "misdeeds'' of Mr. Karunakaran to topple the UDF Government led by Mr. Antony, there is an indication that the party would also be prepared to review its position, vis-a-vis the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) should the need arise.

On Mr. Karunakaran's track record and the CPI(M)'s stated position of having no truck with the IUML, Mr. Vijayan's stock answer was: "Individuals do not matter, what matters is the positions they take.''

He said that Mr. Karunakaran had been objecting to the UDF Government's policies in the recent past and the IUML - which has been a staunch supporter of Mr. Antony - had not campaigned for the UDF candidate in the Ernakulam by-election.

"The IUML president, Panakkad Mohammadali Shihab Thangal, did not get involved in this election; this is very strange."

The CPI(M) was quick to demand the resignation of the Antony Government after the Ernakulam result was out on Monday morning and today it trained its guns on the Kerala Assembly Speaker, Vakkom Purushottaman, for being partisan.

"The Speaker's office is above politics, but Mr. Purushottaman violated this and campaigned for the UDF. He has, therefore, lost the right to hold the office of Speaker and should step down,'' Mr. Vijayan said.

He spoke on the manner in which Mr. Antony had left no stone unturned to win this by-election, which, "like us", he said, was a referendum on the administration.

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