Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005
Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005 |
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By Our Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 1. T.M. Jacob, Kerala Congress (Jacob) leader, today lashed out at the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, for his "propensity to push through policy decisions without any consultations in the ruling coalition." Participating in an Assembly debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address, he said this Government had thrown to the winds the practices every coalition Government in the State used to follow diligently in the past. He said that his party, too was answerable to the people for each decision the Government took. "I am not saying this just because we have not been given a berth in the Cabinet. It is simply a matter of propriety," he said. The Government's decision to ban State lotteries was not discussed in the UDF or even in the Congress party. The same was the case with the liquor policy. "Do you expect others to meekly accept whatever you do?" he asked Mr. Chandy. The Chief Minister was not present in the Assembly during Mr. Jacob's 15-minute speech. Seated close to Mr. Jacob was R. Balakrishna Pillai, whose Kerala Congress faction too was in a similar predicament as Kerala Congress (Jacob), with no berth in the Cabinet.
Single-party rule
Mr. Jacob asked Mr. Chandy whether he thought single-party rule was possible in the State. It was true that the Congress and the CPI(M) were the big parties in the State. But neither could hope to come to power without the help of smaller parties. "Do you really believe you can do without coalition politics here?" he asked. Some people did not want the UDF to come to power again. Things were different when A.K. Antony was heading the Government. He used to place every policy issue in the Cabinet and the UDF before taking a decision, Mr. Jacob said. All parties in the coalition had a place in the Cabinet too at that time. Even when there were differences, whenever a decision was taken, it used to be a collective one. "Can you say the same about the situation now?" Mr. Jacob asked.
UDF manifesto
Mr. Jacob said he too was part of the team that prepared the UDF manifesto for the last elections. "We placed it before the people and they gave us 99 seats in the Assembly. Many things mentioned in the manifesto are yet to be addressed by this Government. There is no mention about them in the Governor's address," he said. Things had come to such a pass in the UDF that even a section of the party heading the coalition had chosen to remain silent in the Assembly, he said. The CPI(M) MLA, Mathai Chacko, criticised the Government for "shabby management of its finances" that had taken debts to a staggering Rs. 43,000 crores from Rs. 23,000 crores four years ago.
`Promises not kept'
The Kerala Congress (Joseph) leader, K.C. Joseph, said the Government had not kept promises made to farmers. K.V. Thomas of the Congress attacked the Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan, for leading "stirs calculated to scare away all investors from the State." Referring to Mr. Achuthanandan's agitation last week against tourism groups in Kovalam, he said such incidents would send a wrong message.
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