Kerala lands corruption blow on Achuthanandan, party looks away

The UDF government in Kerala appears to have finally found a chink in the armour of fiery Communist leader VS Achuthanandan, former Chief Minister of Kerala, who had attained a cult status in his crusade against corruption. The state government has slapped a corruption case against him, which if proved true, could land him in jail for a maximum of seven years. The case is the culmination of an intense rat-hunt by the UDF government to corner, embarrass, and if possible, jail him. After a few attempts, they have been successful in locating a case in which Achuthanandan has allegedly vilolated rules to allot a plot of land to a relative in the northern district of Kasargode. So, the charges are conspiracy, nepotism and destruction of evidence. The startling outcome of the case is the deafening silence by the top leadership of his party in the state. Although he was heckled for comments by the media, the party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan refused to comment. The only top level reaction to the development came from the central leader, Sitaram Yechury, who said the case was politically motivated. Neither the polit bureau nor the central secretariat of the party has discussed the issue and it appears that Yechury didn’t want to lose time to support his comrade with whom he shares a good rapport. [caption id=“attachment_181235” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The state government has slapped a corruption case against former CM of Kerala, VS Achuthanandan, which if proved true, could land him in jail for a maximum of seven years. AFP”]  [/caption] The official faction’s silence is not surprising because Achuthanandan had taken a similar stand when Vijayan faced corruption charges in the SNC Lavlin case. While the state and central party leadership’s official line was that it was a politically motivated case and that the party will fight it politically and legally, Achuthanandan maintained a mysterious silence, hinting that he didn’t agree with the party leadership. His dubious stand alienated him further from Vijayan and the official leadership of the party and the cold vibes between them turned frosty. It is very likely that the Pinarayi camp is rejoicing in silence although they might come out later with a compromise position supporting Achuthanandan. The case against Achuthanandan pertains to the allotment of 2.7 acres of government land to an army retiree who is a distant relative of Achuthanandan. The land was in fact allotted to him in 1977 when K Karunakaran was the chief minister, but because of a bureaucratic bungle he couldn’t take possession. He was asked to re-apply. He applied for the land again in 2007 during the LDF regime with a request for a waiver on the non-salability cap of 25 years of the land since his original application was in 1977. The LDF government decided to allot him the land with the waiver, but decided to put it on hold because of impending elections. The case against the 88-year old leader is the most significant political development in Kerala in recent times. He has been a nasty thorn in the flesh for the UDF and its constituent parties during his chief ministership and later as the opposition leader. With dogged determination, he took on R Balakrishna Pillai, a former minister and an UDF bigwig, personally and fought a corruption case for more than two decades with led to the Supreme Court sending him to jail for a year. Similarly, he picked on Muslim League leader and present industries minister PK Kunhalikkutty for his alleged involvement in a sensational sexual exploitation case, popularly known as the “ice cream parlour case.” His third target was a police officer Tomin J Thachankary, known to be close to the UDF and the leaders of the Pinarayi camp.  Completely discredited, Thachankary has since been in and out of service. He has also been a perpetual source of trouble for Oomen Chandy. He exploited every opportunity to allege corruption against him for his involvement in the palmolein scandal. Therefore, Achuthanandan’s first reaction to the case was that it was a conspiracy by the trio of Pillai, Kunhalikkutty and Thachankary. He was unfazed by the charge and said he would deal with it legally. Achuthanandan is the only leader in Kerala who found resonance with the public outrage against corruption and matters immoral, that too much ahead of Anna Hazare and company. His public calls for action against corruption and sexual exploitation of women and girls has a huge following in the state where he enjoys the popularity a film star. “I will never compromise on corruption and exploitation of young girls,” has been his war-cry, alluding to the alleged misdeeds of Pillai and Kunhalikkutty. However, his party, not surprisingly, takes potshots at him through low-weight proxies. They allege that by projecting Achuthanandan’s crusader- image, a “media syndicate” is seeking to weaken the CPM. The only high level support for Achuthanandan so far has come from the CPI leadership. Pannian Ravindran, a former MP and a top leader of the party, said the case was politically motivated and will not stand legal scrutiny. Prominent left leaning citizens also expressed outrage at this “action of vendetta” by Chandy government. They feel that in his tightrope walk of running a government on a wafer-thin majority, Chandy is under tremendous pressure from his allies and will have to bend over backwards to please them. Expectedly, the response from the UDF camp has been that of jubilation,  betraying a sense of moral victory over Achuthanandan as they could nail him on the same coin.  The former Chief Minister should do for himself what he has been doing against others, said, a sneering Ganesh Kumar, Pillai’s son, a film actor and a minister in the present cabinet. One never to hide his rancour  against Achuthanandan for jailing his father, Ganesh Kumar had earlier made highly derogatory remarks about him and apologised later. Even within his party, Achuthanandan is a lonely ranger, an image that he knows sells well in the state. In fact, this carefully cultivated brand is his USP which got stronger every time his state and central leaderships tried to rein him in. They tried to deny him tickets to assembly elections twice, but both the times the public uproar was overwhelming that the party had to retract and make reluctant exceptions to its decisions. He fights the official state leadership of his party with the same vigour that he fights corruption and elements in the UDF, although in the case of the former, it is mostly veiled. The official leadership of the party, led by Vijayan who has tremendous organisational muscle that also translates into massive assets for the party, has been assiduous in its efforts to restrain and immobilise him. Although now reduced to an extreme minority after the recent reorganisations in the district units of the party, his legendary public following will ensure that Achuthanandan is protected within the CPM. Given the public standing of Achuthanandan and the slight that the CPM itself suffered when it tried to clip his wings, the UDF step could hugely backfire. The vigilance department that has recommended filing of an FIR against him has asked for a speedy investigation and filing of charges. But if the charges of conspiracy and nepotism fail in the Court, the UDF will certainly have tons of mud on its face. Not to give up easily, the tireless comrade is sure to step up his battle pitch. With Pillai already sent to jail, his outstanding target now is Kunhalikkutty. His party’s dubious stand will also embolden him to continue his trajectory that is often tangential to the party line, but immensely popular among the people of Kerala.