The Hindu : Kerala News : IUML maintains silence on Congress factionalism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 22, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

IUML maintains silence on Congress factionalism

Girish Menon

Party leadership to follow Sonia Gandhi's decision

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: What is the Indian Union Muslim League, the second largest party with high stakes in the UDF, up to? With Congress factionalism entering a blind alley, the IUML leadership is uncharacteristically silent. The IUML's silence is more or less in line with the UDF partners' reluctance to broker peace.

The IUML leadership's official stand is that it would prefer not to interfere in the Congress party's internal affairs and would stand by whatever decisions its leader Sonia Gandhi might take on quelling debilitating factionalism. It has refused to even intervene unofficially as it used to do on earlier occasions to extricate the Congress party for the factional web of its own making.

Intervention by IUML

The party came into the picture when the veteran Congress leader, K. Karunakaran's brinksmanship nearly complicated the UDF's electoral process in the last Assembly elections in 2001.

It worked out a formula that conceded whatever Mr. Karunakaran demanded. This included three Assembly seats in which the high command-approved candidate had already started electioneering work. The next major occasion that the IUML intervened was on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections when Mr. Karunakaran yet again took the party to the brink of a split. The IUML leaders, without hiding their opposition to the then Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, brokered another peace formula. Mr. K. Muraleedharan resigned his KPCC president's post and joined the Antony Cabinet as a Minister.

The party also lobbied very hard against Mr. Antony, going to the extent of even branding him as anti-minority.

At one point of time, it tacitly supported the moves to oust Mr. Antony from his chief ministership. On all these occasions, the IUML sought to intervene mainly because its stakes were considerably higher in the UDF.

Feuding leaders have never hesitated to seek the Muslim League leaders' informal intervention.

So why is the IUML silent? Does it not feel insecure by the current situation that has made the UDF structure rather shaky? These questions are being heatedly debated in the UDF.

With the Congress high command taking a rather strong and non-compromising position against Mr. Karunakaran and his brand of politics this time around, the IUML prefers not to make a comment that might be misinterpreted.

The party appears to be caught between its leaders' imperatives of retaining its position as a partner in the UPA coalition and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ministry and maintaining its hold in the UDF under the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy's dispensation.

The IUML's inclusion in the UPA and the induction of its all India General Secretary, E. Ahamed, was a major breakthrough in national politics. It does not want to lose this position.

Mr. Ahmed appears to be content in letting Mr. Kunhalikutty run the show in Kerala. The latter is known to be Mr. Chandy's staunch supporter.

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