THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener Vaikom Viswan has said that the Front is ready for a dialogue on the recently enacted law on self-financing institutions.

Briefing reporters after an LDF State committee meeting here on Friday, Mr. Viswan said the LDF does not propose to stand on prestige on the issue and would be ready to clarify any doubt that any group or individual may have about the provisions of the Act.

The LDF, he said, has all along remained committed to protection of minority rights and the law enacted by the Assembly was also in tandem with this commitment.

Mr. Viswan accused `certain vested interests' of having unleashed a smear campaign against the Government over the provisions of the new law and said such efforts were clearly directed at undermining the gains that the Kerala society had made over the years.

He was confident that the people would see through the strategies of such vested interests and appealed to all sections of people to support the implementation of the Act.

Asked whether the LDF would take the initiative for a dialogue with persons and groups who had aired misgivings about its intent, Mr. Viswan replied in the negative. He claimed that only a miniscule minority among the minority communities and certain sections were behind the campaign against the Act.

He pointed out that not many had endorsed the suggestion that the Act has created a `1959-like' situation in the State. Those who spoke about such possibilities appear to have forgotten that the minority communities in Kerala had the best relations with the Left parties. That being the case, it is highly unlikely for anyone to attempt to destabilise the Government over such issues, he added.

Asked whether the LDF would launch a campaign to put forward its arguments and to rebut the assault from the minority communities on the issue, the LDF convener said efforts in that direction would certainly be made.

He did not, however, see any need for an all-party meeting to discuss the issue or to define minority status of institutions. All such matters had been discussed threadbare in the Assembly and there is no need to go beyond that, he said.

The LDF convener said the Front leadership would complete sharing of corporations and Boards by July 25. Discussions on the subject are in an advanced stage and some consensus has already been arrived at on the issue, he said.

He rebutted allegation that the CPI(M) was trying to corner a large share of posts in corporations and boards and that the smaller constituents of the LDF were sore about it. He did not also agree with the view that there has been an inordinate delay in the reconstitutions of the corporations and Boards.

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