The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Another road to damnation

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Friday, Apr 15, 2005

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Opinion - Editorials

Another road to damnation

IN A HOPELESS situation, the Congress high command has chosen to expel K. Muraleedharan, former president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee and son of ex-Chief Minister K. Karunakaran. Ignoring Mr. Muraleedharan's continued attacks on the Oommen Chandy Government would have egged the "I" faction on to new levels of revolt. However, any action against the dissident leaders would have run the risk of forcing a split in the party. Either course would have weakened the organisation. Eventually, the high command decided to risk a vertical split. Endless appeasement of the Karunakaran camp has made a mockery of the authority of the high command; realisation of this must have eased the path to the expulsion. During the run-up to the 14th general election, when the Karunakaran faction raised the banner of revolt, the high command opted for an arrangement that met the dissidents halfway. However, the outcome was much worse than what the party had feared. The Congress came through as an opportunistic lot of quarrelling politicians who could not win a single seat. Indeed, the All India Congress Committee leader in charge of Kerala, Ahmed Patel, admitted as much when he said the party had tried to "pamper" the dissidents before the Lok Sabha election, but had nothing to show for its pains. In a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, the Congress has ended up walking both roads to damnation.

By giving the dissident group a long rope and leaving room for Mr. Karunakaran to pull back from the brink, the high command appears keen on winning back a large number of partymen who are now in the rebel faction. The rescheduling of the organisational elections and the appointment of functionaries from outside the State as returning officers were moves intended to serve this objective. The high command's calculation seems to be that while 13 Congress Members of the Legislative Assembly have got on to the rebel bandwagon, not all of them will be inclined to take the big step. The old fox has countered this move by securing the resignation letters of four MLAs belonging to his group; five more MLAs may resign.

The Congress is unlikely to be consoled by the thought that the now virtually guaranteed triumph for the Left Democratic Front in the 2006 Assembly election will still be a victory for forces supporting the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre. The Karunakaran faction is organisationally strong. Three constituents of the United Democratic Front — the Kerala Congress (Jacob), the Kerala Congress (Balakrishna Pillai), and the Thamarakshan faction of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik) — are likely to join hands with Mr. Karunakaran in the event of his making a final break. Thus, even though the formidable LDF is under no compulsion to add more partners, the Karunakaran faction and its allies seem fully capable of inflicting further damage on an already battered Congress.

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