:: Balbir Punj

Warring factions within Left crippling Kerala

By Balbir K. Punj

Politics in ‘God’s own country’ seems to have gone to the devil. While the entire Kerala Cabinet, led by its Marxist chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, was demonstrating in New Delhi against the Centre’s "neglect" of the state, Congress Opposition leader Oommen Chandy and his followers were sitting in dharna before the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram protesting Marxist-led government’s neglect of the state’s interests.

Mr Chandy dismissed the Marxist demonstration saying, "No prominent national leaders of the Left turned up at the demonstration." Similarly, the chief minister dismissed the Opposition’s protests: "The Congress demonstration in the state capital was a political stunt."

It could be a toss in the air to judge between these two rival claims. Yet it is interesting to note that all the time the chief minister was arraigning the Centre for cutting the quota of rice the state receives for distribution to Above Poverty Line (APL) families, field upon field in Kerala’s own rice bowl, Kuttanad, were lying unharvested with mature paddy rotting in the rains. The reason: Marxists would not allow machines to be used for harvesting and the labour needed to harvest was not available even at the inflated and politically-determined wages.

The Left had launched an agitation against the use of machines but landholders were able to prove that human labour was not available in sufficient numbers for the harvest. The government then reached an agreement with the landholders and the labour unions to allow machines for harvest under certain conditions. But the internal struggle within the Left Front constituents for supremacy in the politically-volatile Kuttanad resulted in the agreement being violated with impunity. To add insult to injury, in Kerala, the government has the first right to pick up all paddy produced in the fields. In Kuttanad and in many other places, wherever paddy was harvested, the government’s inefficiency resulted in huge losses with most of the paddy getting destroyed in the rains.

For instance, in Pandarakalam out of the harvested 3,000 tonnes of paddy, government was able to lift only 130 tonnes. The rest of the paddy, lying in open fields, became wet and began to germinate. The state procures the whole harvest of paddy mainly to feed the state supply corporation and the ration shops. Kerala is heavily deficit in rice but its best paddy fields often lie uncultivated or, if cultivated, unharvested because of labour trouble.

What is worse, the rivalry between CPI and CPI(M) over trade union leadership ensures that any tripartite agreement to save the rice in the field is sure to be sabotaged by one or the other of the two political parties both of whom are partners in the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).

This inter-LDF rivalry is posing ridiculous challenges for the state administration.

The LDF is deeply divided over several issues that are stalling administrative progress. The CPI(M) and CPI were openly trading charges over the government’s policies on SEZs. And a few weeks ago the split within the government, over the takeover of elite clubs in the state, was exposed. Two government departments, under two rival partners of the LDF submitted contradictory affidavits in the Kerala high court.

The CPI(M) itself is deeply divided between the chief minister’s faction and party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan’s faction. This split has surfaced in several areas, the most recent of which was Mr Achuthanandan’s attempts to clear plantation and other encroachers on government land in the resort area of Munnar. The chief minister had then even warned the Tatas — who have extensive tea plantation in the salubrious Munnar — that if they go to court over the dispute on the land they use, he would throw out all the Tata enterprises from the state. The chief minister is an out and out conservative when it comes to Communist ideology. The result is that the state attracts no new investment. In any case, it suffers from a huge power deficit and daily and frequent power cuts.

The largest enterprise in the state is the CPI(M) which is reported to own assets worth more than Rs 1,500 crores, part of which is in the form of mutual funds, despite the Marxist opposition to the stock market. Besides a large publication house, the CPI(M) also owns prime land, used as party offices in almost all districts. It also has resorts for its leaders in places like Munnar and is reported to be planning to invest in hotels, resorts and other enterprises.

In addition, the ruling party controls several co-operatives that own trading houses, private colleges etc.

Corruption is so deeply embedded in the state that even government-backed temple trusts are not free from huge mulcting of public funds.

Recently there was a controversy over the party newspaper accepting Rs 2 crores from a tainted source. This money was described as advance payment for advertisements in the newspaper. The party, however, was forced to return the money after the whole deal became public.

However, these state-supported enterprises mainly help the CPI(M) to push its own people into jobs in these organisations and strengthen its base.

The explanation the chief minister gave for the demonstration he organised in New Delhi was that the Centre had drastically cut the quota of rice for the APL families. Kerala provides subsidised rice for APL as well as below poverty line (BPL) families as it is a heavily rice deficit state. The state also runs an extensive supply shop chain under a co-operative supported by government funds.

The chief minister himself said that the Centre’s cut in rice quota was the outcome of his party, CPI(M), withdrawing support to the Congress-led UPA government. If that is so, it also follows that his party enjoyed several privileges out of the political support it gave to the UPA government. Given the various scandals the LDF government has been involved in, perhaps it is time people organised a dharna against their misrule in the state itself.

Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com