Totally letting down lakhs of Malayalis who poured into the streets of Kerala, spontaneously, when the Pinarayi controlled CPM state committee denied him a ticket for contesting 2006 Assembly polls, VS Achuthanandan, Chief Minister, humiliatingly surrendered to Pinarayi Vijayan by attending the concluding ceremony of the ?Nava Kerala March? at Shangumugham beach in Thiruvananthapuram on February 25, ending weeks of bravado of non-attendance.
The Kannur lobby then led by late E K Nayanar and now Pinarayi Vijayan has been systematically trying to downsize and humiliate V S for past two decades. To deny him Chief ministership in 1996, they plotted and defeated him in the red bastion of Mararikulam. His clout at the party was slowly demolished. His faction lost one by one the district units and in state meet, he barely scraped through at Malappuram.
VS'strump card was the Rs.390 crore SNC-LAVLIN Scam, in which CBI has sought permission to prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan. But with party and PB solidly backing Pinarayi to the hilt, VS found the going tough. He tried to take a moral high ground against corrupt Pinarayi by refusing to attend the inaugural function of the march on February 2 and also refusing to attend its concluding function despite party and PB pressure. But faced with the threat of action and even loss of Chief ministership, VS buckled under pressure.
VS has proved that he is all bravado, totally ineffective and lacking courage of conviction. This has been the persistent character of VS. He has always been a coward when it comes to the crux. Despite making loud talks in 1996 on treachery he suffered defeat silently at the state and PB meets. He let down the officers who carried out demolition of encroachments on government property at Munnar. He made loud talks of arresting and parading perpetuators of sex rackets, sandalwood, land, sand, water mafias with handcuffs in the streets of Kerala, but as on day this miracle has not taken place. Moreover, sex racket cases involving sons of ministers have been swept under the carpet.
Despite VS and Pinarayi being on the stage on both sides of helpless and tense Prakash Karat, they did not see eye-to-eye or face to face during the entire three hour odyssey. Dumping his earlier position VS tried to toe the party line saying that this CBI cases of SNC-LAVLIN is a politically motivated case which CPM will unitedly fight in the people and judicial courts, Pinarayi spoke arrogantly ridiculing VS. He said ?leaders should not fall prey to sycophancy and sloganeering. There is not independent existence for them in isolation from the party. If a bucket of water is taken from the sea, there won'tbe waves in that. Waves are there only when water is in sea.?
By going back on his earlier position of relentless fight against SNC-LAVLIN Scam, VS has been shattered and blown to pieces from the high deified pedestal which people had put in their hearts, as an eternal crusader of corruption and injustice. Just as Marx and Lenin statues tumbled down and were spat and kicked consequent to fall of communism, VS is also being condemned in Malayali minds. He has meekly surrendered to the ?Commie Overlord Pinarayi Vijayan? relinquishing his fighting spirit to hold on to his kursi.
PB and Pinarayi have already prepared another coffin for him. They have declared that he will lead the LDF Lok Sabha polls campaign. With CPM sure to rout, the blame will be put on him. VS, you have committed harakiri by attending the march. If you had resigned, the three crore people of Kerala would have hailed you. Historic blunder!
