The Hindu : Kerala News : Antony rules out ties with CPI(M)

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Saturday, May 21, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Antony rules out ties with CPI(M)

Staff Reporter

`Those who had done it have realised their mistakes'

KANNUR: The former Chief Minister and Congress Working Committee member A.K. Antony said here on Friday that those who had left the Congress and were helping to bring the Marxists to power in the State would regret their moves later.

Inaugurating the P. Gopalan memorial function here, Mr. Antony said the Congress leaders, including M. Abdurrahiman Sahib, K. Kelappan, C.K. Govindan Nair and himself, who had gone for an alliance with the Marxists over the decades, had realised their mistakes.

`Alliance is impossible'

An alliance of the Congress and the Marxist party was impossible in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, he said adding that the existing camaraderie at the national level was born out of a political urgency of keeping the Bharatiya Janata Party out of power.

Mr. Antony said that it was the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had taken the initiative for the merger to end the split in the State.

She had a political aim of ending the dominance of the Marxists by unseating them from power. After the merger in 1978, Indiraji had helped the Congress come to power in 1980, he said.

"If those who have now left the Congress and formed a party in her name unseat the Congress Government in the State to help the Marxists come to power, the people here will not forgive them," he said.

Remembering P. Gopalan, Mr. Antony said the rich class was gradually controlling political parties and parliamentary institutions in the country. "Indian political system cannot become a carbon copy of the U.S. politics because India is still the country of millions of poor and common people,'' he said. Politics in a country such as India should be treated as service not profession, he said. However, many of those entering in politics today were driven by an urge for serving themselves and their families, he said adding that no party was an exception to this trend.

The District Congress Committee president, Sunny Joseph, presided over the function. The Congress leaders K. Sudhakaran, MLA, K.P. Nooruddin, M.K. Raghavan, N. Ramakrishnan, P. Bhaskaran and A.P. Jayasheelan were present.

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