If there has been a damp squib in Kerala'swell-known political demagoguery it has been the annual state conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). After the high-voltage advertisement and publicity blitz on the Sammelan the four-day event ended with a whimper.
The only highlight of the conference was CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat'sfinger-shaking warning to the church to behave. ?Issuing pastoral letters with political end is not right. Enter into dialogue and discuss points where there are differences,? he told his comrades who lustily cheered their leader'scharacterestic indiscretion.
What is of significance here is that the church, just as the Ulemas, don'tthink much of secularism when it comes to influencing the community vote-banks. The church has been making public pronouncements of whom to vote for and whom not to vote for, not just in Kerala but even in states like Goa and the north-east. Propaganda pamphlets are customarily distributed to all church-goers telling them to vote against ?communal? parties (read BJP). The Ulemas have through history indulged in such grossly unbecoming practices, though only now the Left is getting a taste of its impunity.
All the same, for the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), the vote bank of minorities is crucial. Muslims and Christians form nearly 30 per cent of the population. Ever since the LDF came to power the government has been having a run in with both Christian as well as Hindu temple authorities. The Sabarimala Devosom Board is so cut up with the Leftist government that it is on the verge of telling the Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to go take a walk.
To temper his outburst against the church Shri Karat told the gathering that only a strong CPM could guarantee the protection of the minorities. According to him, the true test of democracy lies in ?fair treatment of minorities?, whatever that means. He also raked up issues like Sachar Committee report and its implementation to justify the minority leanings of his government.
But the anger amongst common people against the government has to be seen to be believed. In what appears to be the most corrupt and ham-handed way of dealing with infrastructural issues, road construction work at various places which were given to a Malaysian company had to be abandoned after a Japanese senior official committed suicide because of harassment from government. The stretch of road which has been completed by the Malaysian firm between Palakkad and Parli is an incredible work of professionalism. It'salmost as if you have suddenly entered Singapore.
The Kerala government version of the events leading to the Malaysian company withdrawing from the project after the suicide which is paraphrased by party workers (in Kerala and West Bengal you can always mistake a government official with a party comrade) is that they wanted to prolong the project implementation to benefit the construction workers. Foreign firms are known for timely completion of projects and a no-nonsense approach to cost escalations. But commoners in Palakkad district whom this reporter talked to were emphatic that corruption led to the Japanese official wager his own salary on the project! In his personal conviction delay meant death.
?The common joke now in the locality is that Japanese cars run well between Palakkad and Parli, so only people living in that stretch should buy them,? said Kaveriamma, a resident of Palakkad. Her husband, who works with a local urban co-operative bank, emphasised that the next election is going to seal the fate of the LDF government.
?Over the last few months the government policies have alienated almost all the communities, even as the HMT land scam has made the government'scredibility hit the nadir. There are few ministers in this government who are above board?, he explained while seeking anonimity.
The fear of a party blacklash, as typical of any Communist regime anywhere in the world, makes people scared of openly speaking against the government. Though the shenanigans of the LDF government are enough to fill many editions of this newspaper, the indifference of the people towards the CPI(M) state conference tells a story. ?The ministers and party cadres have filled their own coffers. The state'swell being and progress which used to be benchmark against the other three southern states, is now in a shambles,? said Ravindran, a software engineer who wound up his own enterprise in Kochi after bearing losses for three years. Most of his earnings went in lining the pockets of various inspectors. Now he works for a leading software company in Bangalore. He seethed in anger at the mention of CPI(M) conference. Need we say more.
