Solar scam: How will Oommen Chandy survive this siege?

Can Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy survive the biggest crisis in his political life?

The CPM and its left allies will not settle for anything but his blood, and they have laid siege to his headquarters with a vow not to leave until he resigns.

The CPM and its allies have fielded 1,00,000 of its cadre around the government secretariat building in the state capital and have made elaborate arrangements for a long drawn out battle.

The secretariat, although the most common target for protests and fasts, hasn’t seen such a siege in its history.

The present imbroglio, that the local media calls a “war”, is the culmination of the opposition’s attack against Chandy in the solar scam, a cheating-racket run by a couple. The crux of their allegation is that his office had been used by Saritha Nair, the woman involved in the racket. There is direct evidence against his secretary, who is now in jail, and against his bodyguard (gunman in local parlance), who has since been suspended, but not arrested.

Right from the beginning, the CPM and left parties wanted a judicial inquiry into the scam and Chandy to resign.

Chandy’s argument has been that his office had been misused without his knowledge and that the guilty will be punished. According to him, the opposition has hatched a conspiracy using a criminal case which was being investigated by an additional general of police. It was a cheating case in which the government lost no money and charges would soon be framed, he said.

But the opposition said a police investigation couldn’t be fair because Chandy himself was implicated and his police would not be able to investigate their boss.

The weakest spot for Chandy is in fact not his secretary who is in jail now, but the bodyguard — “gunman Salim Raj”. Not averse to hitting below the belt for political gains, opposition leader VS Achuthanandan tried to link him to Chandy’s family in the assembly, but the speaker foiled his attempt.

However Achuthanandan has been able to spread the word that Chandy certainly has some vulnerability when it comes to Salim Raj.

To make matters worse the government asked the Kerala high court, which heard a land-deal case against Salim Raj, not to divulge his telephone records. This provided timely ammunition to the CPM and Achuthanandan. If Chandy had nothing to hide, why was he anxious about his gunman’s call details, they asked. They said his phone records would reveal Chandy’s role in the scam.

On Monday, as his party cadres gathered near the secretariat, Achuthanandan went a step ahead with his wordplay saying that in Chandy’s constituency, Salim Raj is known as “gunmon” (Mon in Malayalam means son) and not as “gunman”, insinuating that the man was like a son to Chandy.

Although there have been rumours linking Salim Raj with Chandy’s household, the mainstream media has been restrained in carrying any gossip; but Achuthanandan kept harping on the same point, making Chandy vulnerable. That he was not arrested and the advocate general of the government opposed the land case in the high court made his charges appear credible.

Creating further embarrassment for Chandy, the CPM-run People TV channel on Sunday telecast a photo of Saritha Nair speaking into Chandy’s ears at a public function. CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the photo confirmed how close she was to Chandy and therefore he had to step down and face a judicial enquiry. Many of the cadre who are taking part in the secretariat-siege carried blown-up pictures of Saritha Nair with Chandy.

While the CPM and its allies prepared for their all-out war over the last few days, Chandy over-reacted. He said the opposition’s attempt was to destabilise a democratically elected government and to paralyse its institutions. He called in central forces and threatened the agitators with stern action.

On Monday, three gates of the Secretariat have been blocked by the party cadres while the police ensured that one gate was open to ministers, staff and general public.

This is undoubtedly the biggest challenge in Chandy’s political life. At this moment of crisis, unfortunately, his allies and some sections of his own party are not fully backing him.

PC Geroge, the chief whip of the ruling United Democratic Front in assembly, wanted Chandy to resign to avoid the crisis. The president of the Kerala unit of the Congress Ramesh Chennithala said that Chandy hadn’t consulted the party before asking for the central forces. Another leader of a small ally, R Balakrishna Pillai also said that Chandy over-reacted.

The CPM knows that Chandy is highly vulnerable and his own allies are not fully backing him and hence has gone for the jugular. If things don’t change dramatically, they are most likely to win.