With each passing day, the inner contradictions in the front and intense group infighting in the CPM is making the seven-month old LDF regime most unpopular, and Keralaites are cursing themselves for having voted in, this most ineffective and unproductive regime in the history of united Kerala.
Right from day one, the open war between Chief Minister V.S. Atchudanandan and bulk of the CPM ministers, who are loyalists of CPM State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, is taking the State administration to near paralysis and stand still. The CPI ministers who have teamed up with V.S. to attack Pinarayi and his ministers add more comic to the circus. The bureaucracy does not know what to do. If the government comes into fire for wrong decisions, officials are made scape-goats. Law and order is collapsing and criminals rule the roast. Murders, looting robberies, rape, sex rackets take place in broad daylight.
Now, taking of Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan by the five CPM ruled corporations has clearly exposed the duplicity of the CPM, when in power, and in opposition. The earlier UDF regime had applied for ADB loan under Sustainable Urban Development Programme (SUDP) for development of urban infrastructure in the jurisdiction of the five municipal corporations. The CPM and DYFI strongly opposed the move to take loans, blocked the ADB officials, ransacked the nodal offices of ADB and, then Opposition leader, V.S. declared war on ADB. Now the state government, with the approval of the cabinet has signed agreement with the ADB for taking Rs. 1,061 crore loan for SUDP! In the budget presented earlier, by Pinarayi loyalist Finance Minister Thomas Issac, Rs. 140 crores has been shown as income from ADB. Posts have been created for SUDP in Government and Corporation. But Chief Minister Atchudanandan says he is ignorant of Government taking ADB loans! He says issue was not discussed in cabinet but Thomas Issac refutes him! ?Why did V.S. keep quiet when ADB funds were shown in Budget?? No answer. To add to the confusion, Supremo Prakash Karat has justified taking ADB loans blaming it on neo-liberalisation and imperialist globalisation! This has always been the strategy of CPM. When in opposition, they oppose +2 schooling, self-finance professional colleges, medical institutions etc., but when in power, they do just the opposite and pocket hundreds of crore from the beneficiaries. This is just the CPM'sshow and bravado to put dust in the eye of the people. Moreover the CPM, when cornered, don'ttalk local or national issues. They blame Imperialism, America, RSS/BJP and talk of Poland, Russia, China, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan etc., to divert the issues.
In a clear yardstick of the LDF'sdownswing, the CPM candidate scraped through at the Thiruvambadi bye-election to the Assembly with a margin of 246 votes, which it won 7 months before by 6,000 votes. That too, thanks to NCP leader K. Karunakaran who campaigned, last minute for the LDF. But in a clear instance of political ungratefulness, the LDF threw out the NCP from the front, because of it, merging with K. Karunakaran'sDIC(K). The CPI, RSP and V.S. were opposed to DIC(K) joining LDF, but Pinarayi was all for it. To gain a back door entry to the LDF, Karunakaran teamed up with Sharad Pawar and merged his outfit with NCP. Although Karunakaran and his son Muraleedharan are not angels, the CPM and CPI has been consistently using Karunakaran'sclout for winning elections like Kochi Lok Sabha bye-election, local body polls, Trivandrum Lok Sabha bye-poll and now Thiruvambadi, and throwing them out like plague after attaining victory.
Anyway this regime has become most unpopular, the down-slide has started, and people are waiting for next ballot-battle to throw them into the Arabian Sea. Let us pray, they do not have to wait for another four and a half years.
