Sunday, Oct 12, 2003
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Kerala
By Our Staff Reporter
Talking to The Hindu here on Friday, Mr. Vijayan, said the LDF would adopt a "wait-and-watch" policy towards the internal fight in the Congress. He said the fight within the Congress was nothing new. The moot question was whether the Karunakaran group would take the extreme step of leaving the party. The Congress high command would think twice about taking action against Mr. Karunakaran, one of the senior most leaders of the party, he said. The statements by the three-member committee of the Congress the other day exonerating Mr. Karunakaran and the KPCC president, K. Muraleedharan, of the charges of anti-party activities during the Ernakulam Lok Sabha by-poll was an attempt on the part of the Congress high command to cool down things within the party in Kerala, he said. Asked whether the LDF would support Mr. Karunakaran if he tried to form an alternative Government, Mr. Vijayan said that at present, the chances of such a situation emerging were remote. When asked about the reluctance of LDF partners such as the RSP to support a Government in which the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) was a partner, the CPI(M) State secretary said that such reactions were "premature and unwarranted" at this stage. Mr. Vijayan said the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, had a "long-term hidden agenda" in his policy of appeasement of the Sangh Parivar. This was evident in the Ernakulam by-election. He had planned it from the very beginning when he snatched the seat from the `I' group. He was pursuing this agenda for his future plan, which was evident when he accepted the Sangh Parivar's demand for a CBI inquiry into the Marad incident, Mr. Vijayan said. This policy had paid him dividends. A good chunk of the BJP votes had gone to the UDF, where money and other considerations played a key role, he alleged. Mr. Vijayan said he was happy about the marginalisation of the group led by V. B. Cheriyan, which had put up the candidature of V. Viswanatha Menon in Ernakulam with the support of the BJP. The Left masses would not support such unprincipled formations, he said. Mr. Vijayan said the Marad resettlement was delayed with an eye on the Ernakulam by-poll. But when the Chief Minister and his IUML supporters found that the Muslim masses had deserted them, the Government was forced to take steps to bring back those who had left their homes after the Marad violence in May last, he added. He said there were differences within the IUML on the issue. The IUML State president, Panakkad Muhammadali Shihab Thangal, had openly expressed his displeasure over the delay in solving the Marad issue. But the party's nominees in the Government led by P. K. Kunhalikutty had put pressure on the party president to agree to the stand taken by Mr. Antony in order to save the Government, he said. He alleged that the Chief Minister was not sincere in his announcement of a CBI inquiry into the Marad violence. According to Mr. Vijayan, the Government should not have handled such a serious issue in this way. It should have examined the legal implications before announcing a CBI inquiry. Mr. Vijayan said though the LDF had differences with the Government on the handling of the Marad issue, it would cooperate with the resettlement measures to bring peace and communal amity at Marad.
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