The war against Chief Minister Atchudanandan, which started from the times of EMS and E.K. Nayanar, within the CPM, is now being led by party secretary and North Kerala strong man Pinarayi Vijayan. The tiff between them has reached dangerous proportions, as the CM V.S. is not able to take any decision and the total state administration is paralysed and is in a limbo. While neighbouring Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi has done so much within the short span of four months like rice at Rs. 2 per kg, free 2 acre agricultural land, housing for poor, colour TV'sfor backwards etc. the proclaimed pro-poor LDF regime is still in a slumber and war of words is going on between V.S. and Pinarayi.
The war between V.S. and Pinarayi started when V.S. refused to hand over the ?Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Department? to Pinarayi man and Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and ultimately due to instructions from Prakash Karat, V.S. had to relent. Next Prabath Patnaik, a JNU left intellectual, was made Vice-Chairman of State Planning Board against V.S.'swishes. To counter balance it, Venkatesh Atreya, another JNU product who was totally opposed to Prabath, was made member of Planning Board by V.S. Now both these persons, who are supported by opposing forces, are fighting it out deadlocking the planning operations. Similarly when Sudhakara Prasad was made the Advocate General by V.S., Pinarayi'sman P.G. Thampi has been made Director General of Prosecution.
Sri. K.M. Shajahan, a V.S. man expelled by Pinarayi from the CPM, has been accommodated in the C-DIT, much to Pinarayi'sanger.
Now two major appointments have intensified the war between V.S. and Pinarayi. T.P. Dasan, former Mayor of Kozhikode, a Pinarayi man and involved in the infamous ice-cream parlour sex scandal (in which Muslim League leader P.K. Kunjalikutty was also involved) case was made the President of the Kerala Sport'sCouncil by the CPM. This had become a major embarrassment for V.S. since he came to power riding on the crest of the wave of promising to hand-cuff the ice-cream parlour and other sex-scandal perpetrators and parade them in public. The Naxal leader and women activist K. Ajitha has strongly opposed Dasan'sappointment and said the day of reckoning for V.S. to assert himself has come. Meanwhile a pro-VS CPM weekly Janashakthi, which was inaugurated by EMS'sdaughter Malathi has strongly attacked T.P. Dasan'sappointment in its column titled ?Ice-cream Maduram? (ice-cream sweetness).
The sacking of Pinarayi man A. Akbar from the Managing Directorship of Kerala State Financial Enterprises for his alleged connections with Taliban and Al-Qaeda during his CEOship with Bank of Kabul, by V.S., has not been taken kindly by Pinarayi. The Muslim League has strongly reacted against this and after the removal of Mohammed Riazudeen from Chief Secretaryship IUML leader E.T. Mohammed Basheer has said that the pro-Muslim tilt shown by the CPM is only a ploy to garner Muslim vote-banks.
But who cares if the state suffers as long as the party cadres and coffers are happy and full. V.S. has not taken kindly to the Rs.25 crore collected by Pinarayi and his cronies from Gulf Keralites mentioning his name. Meanwhile, the CPM, which already has assets moderately valued at Rs.4,000 crore in Kerala which ranges from multi-storey commercial complexes, luxury flats for working-class leaders, tourist resorts to amusement parks using lakhs of litres of drinking water, has purchased a non-functioning textile mill at Kannur for Rs. 6.5 crore for housing a Nayanar memorial.
Kerala has so many problems ranging from Islamic terrorism to rising unemployment to be tackled. If the CPM leaders do not set aside their quarrels and begin to act, the people will throw them into the Arabian Sea, never to surface up. CPM?perform or perish.
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