By P. Sreekumaran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is making a desperate attempt to dictate the political discourse in the run-up to the crucial Assembly elections.
It is not difficult to understand why the UDF is doing that. All its earlier efforts to push the CPI(M)-headed Left Democratic Front(LDF) on to the backfoot having failed dismally, the UDF has hit upon a new campaign theme – the politics of deals – to gain the upper hand in the propaganda war.
It all originated in Palakkad constituency – a sitting seat of the Congress. The BJP has fielded a heavyweight, Sobha Surendran, to wrest the seat from the Congress. One would have expected the Congress to put up a senior party leader to take on the BJP candidate. It has not done that. What it has done – political pundits consider it a serious blunder – is to put in the fray an apolitical person Ramesh Pisharody, an actor by profession. The decision has not gone down well even within the Congress camp. The growing perception is that the Congress leadership has succumbed to the pressure mounted by the young turks in the party led by Vadakara MP, Shafi Parambil to field Pisharody.
The ‘blackmailing tactics’ seem to have boomeranged badly. True, Pisharody is a pro-Congress person. But some of his views are at odds with the official stand of the Congress. That is bad enough. Worse is that Pisharody’s opinions and statements on a host of issues reflect the BJP’s stance. Needless to say, this can only benefit the BJP candidate.
The Congress seems to have realized the political folly. But wisdom has dawned a bit too late in the day. Hence its efforts to accuse the CPI(M) of reaching a deal with the BJP! Nothing is farther from the truth. The CPI(M) has, in fact, fielded a strong candidate K. N. M. Razack, a comrade hugely popular in the constituency and accessible to one and all.
The boot is actually on the other leg. It is the Congress which has entered into a deal with the BJP to ensure the victory of Sobha. If the Congress was really keen on retaining the seat, the party should have fielded a strong candidate – someone like K. Muralidharan, a former KPCC president and a battle-scarred veteran. It failed – or rather refused – to do anything of that kind. By failing to put up a strong candidate, the Congress would seem to have already lost the battle for Palakkad.
The main reason why the Congress and its allies have focused on accusing the LDF of a deal with the BJP is that the party desperately wants to shift the focus of the campaign away from the issue of development and welfare measures. The party knows jolly well that if development becomes the main campaign issue, then the LDF would win hands down. At every step, the Congress has opposed development tooth and nail. The party’s negative role will be exposed, which, in turn, will badly affect its prospects of staging a comeback in the State. Hence its shameless indulgence in the politics of deals.
This is a dangerous trap set by the Congress. And the LDF must avoid falling into it. Therefore, the LDF must accord top priority to shifting the campaign focus to developmental gains and welfare measures the Pinarayi Government has achieved in the last ten years. This is the Front’s strong point. And it must pull out all the stops to reach out to the people and inform them of the success on that front, instead of wasting time on engaging the UDF in a debate on deal politics. The people of Kerala are too intelligent to be influenced by the Congress’s talk of a CPI(M)-BJP deal.
Of course, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is effectively countering the UDF’s campaign rhetoric. The Chief Minister has posted on his Facebook page a 2006 photograph showing the Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan lighting a lamp in front of a picture of Hindutva ideologue M. S. Golwalkar, who served as the second chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS). Satheesan has not till date explained what compelled him to attend an RSS-sponsored function despite repeated questions from Pinarayi. Adding insult to injury is Hindu Aikya Vedi leader R. V. Babu’s assertion in 2002 that RSS had helped Satheesan’s victory in the 2001 and 2006 assembly elections in the Paravur constituency. Satheesan continues to maintain a deafening silence on the twin charges.
Likewise, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is indulging in patently false propaganda against the Pinarayi government. Rahul would have the people of Keralam believe that the State tops the list in the use of drugs! The allegation is nothing but a tissue of lies and farrago of nonsense. The statistics, released by the Narcotics Crime Research Bureau (NCRB), knocks the stuffing out of Rahul’s claim. According to the NCRB data, Keralam occupies only the 12th position in the list of states where the use of drugs is prevalent. On the contrary, Keralam tops the list of States which have effected arrest of drug peddlers and in achieving high conviction rate!
The shameless resort to false and baseless propaganda by the Congress betrays its eagerness to wrest power by hook or crook. But the sinister designs of the party are unlikely to succeed as the people of Keralam are too enlightened to be taken in by such fake narratives and false propaganda. (IPA Service)
