IN communist ruled West Bengal farmland acquisitions for favoured industries is proving to be its Waterloo. In another communist ruled state Kerala, the bulldozer that it flaunted as its anti-capitalist flagbearer has proved to be its Bhasmasura. Guess, who objected to the demolition of illegal land encroachments in the tourist and tea garden area of Munnar? Its own ally, the CPI.
Not that the CPM boss Pinarayi Vijayan was greatly pleased when his party Chief Minister Achutanandan'sstock with the public soared after the state government moved against the land grabbers.
He was the first to puncture the CM'sballoon. But now the CM has been humbled enough to dismount the bulldozer, the officer Achutananadan specially appointed to push the demolition brigade has gone on long leave and the Marxists have come out with a new doctrine on demolitions. This Marxist doctrine says the illegality does not apply to political party properties and temple properties and the ones owned by religious institutions.
Not that the Marxists have suddenly become God-fearing. The religious places were just a camouflage for protecting the innumerable properties they themselves acquired through their favoured activists in state government. One such Left activist was M.I. Ravindran, at one time a tahsildar in Munnar.
According to the demolition squad leader Suresh Kumar, appointed by Chief Minister Achutanandan, all the 500 and odd land titles issued by this tahsildar were fake. That Ravindran earlier had quit the job and contested, as a Left Front candidate in the Assembly elections is another matter. But the political devil in this officer had showed up.
Many of the beneficiaries were the communist parties and their front organisations while many businessmen also benefited. It is more probable that Ravindran was the comrades? title distributing appointee with the spoils being shared vertically. It is no secret that the CPI and the CPM both own enormous prime properties in Kerala, CPI more than CPM. It was when Suresh Kumar directed his demolition brigade against the front of one of the CPI offices in Munnar that all hell was let lose. Kumar was ready to attack the next illegal structure- a full CPI office in yet another place in the same tea town. That the great comrades and friends of the poor were occasionally inclined to take rest in the resorts of Munnar hidden as party offices is now a public secret. What is wrong with it CPI wont to ask-of course the comrades were following the practices of their mentors in the former Soviet Union who were regularly holidaying in the Black Sea shore dachas. The moment this great state secret of the comrades became public and the CPI office was to be demolished, these experts in double speak came up with the new doctrine-demolitions should not apply to political party offices. The Left Front then appointed a committee on the demolitions. This body came up with severe comments on the course the demolitions took and its director of operations IAS officer Suresh Kumar. A disgusted officer went on leave. Not that the CPM'sChief Minister was an innocent victim of the CPI'smanipulations. Achuta-nandan afterwards came up with even more silly statement.
Though his blue-eyed boy in the administration Suresh Kumar had publicly dubbed all the land titles issues by the fellow traveler tahsildar were fake, Achutanandan said that they were not all fakes. This amendment was the straw that broke officer'sback and forced him to quit the scene. The demolitions came to a dead stop. These manipulations led the Kerala High Court to go to the extent of regretting the support it had given earlier to these demolitions. Justice Sirijagan said that the sudden U-turn in the Government'sstand on demolition of illegal structures made the earlier ruling of the court in favour of demolition had shaken the court'sown credibility. The court said that the Government had lost face.
A PIL was also moved before the court. The mover was no other than the father of Suresh Kumar, the elder Kumar being a civil activist himself.
Under fire for such palpable support to illegal land grabbing, the Left Front government is now prevaricating. One of the escape hatches it has discovered is to ask the government machinery to identify illegal encroachments into government land. The revenue minister K. P. Rajendran even led a team of officers in the thick forests of Idukki district to locate such land and fence it off. The diversionary tactic has not fooled the Kerala public and the Left Front government is facing all round public criticism. What is more important in this struggle is the Government'sloss of credibility.
What had begun as a great public relations exercise had ended up as a greater PR disaster? Its pro-poor image has been fully exposed as hollow.
(The writer can be contacted at [email protected])
Not that the Marxists have suddenly become God-fearing. The religious places were just a camouflage for protecting the innumerable properties they themselves acquired through their favoured activists in state government. One such Left activist was M.I. Ravindran, at one time a tahsildar in Munnar.
The moment this great state secret of the comrades became public and the CPI office was to be demolished, these experts in double speak came up with the new doctrine?demolitions should not apply to political party offices. The Left Front then appointed a committee on the demolitions.
