Author: Shaju Philip
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 9, 2009
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/on-verdict-eve-war-in-kerala-cpm-state-unit-says-cm-should-step-down/456620/0
The Kerala CPM has asked Chief Minister V
S Achuthanandan to quit for his "anti-party" stand on the SNC Lavalin
case. The state secretariat of the party which met on Friday demanded his
resignation for refusing to tread the party line that the case against state
party chief Pinarayi Vijayan was politically motivated.
Achuthanandan was the sole dissenter in the
cabinet meeting on Wednesday to decide on the Advocate General's opinion that
the government should not grant sanction to prosecute Vijayan.
Though the secretariat denied that it sought
the Chief Minister's resignation and said such reports were fabricated, sources
said the decision would be conveyed to the politburo.
The politburo will take a final decision on
the issue.
When the discussions in the secretariat leaked
out, putting the party in an embarrassing situation in the middle of elections,
the central leadership promptly directed the state unit to issue a denial
and chose to describe the developments as media creation. Sources in the Politburo
said although they had expected the VS-Pinarayi tussle to flare up again they
did not foresee it coming before May 16. Although party leaders here said
the issue was serious, they viewed Friday's developments as pressure tactics
by the Pinarayi-led faction to push VS to the backfoot.
It is not the first time that the Vijayan-controlled
secretariat has spoken out against Achuthanandan but at Friday's meeting no
one stood up to defend the Chief Minister. His belligerence in the Cabinet
meeting on Wednesday embarrassed the party which had earlier taken a decision
to accept the Advocate General's opinion.
The AG was asked to advice the Cabinet after
the Governor sought its opinion on the CBI request to sanction Vijayan's prosecution.
Upholding his image as a crusader against
corruption, Achuthanandan sought to reject the AG's advice. He argued that
the AG should be told to file a fresh report as he had summarily rejected
the CBI charges against Vijayan. He even threatened to register his dissenting
note, which would have landed the Cabinet in a crisis.
Disregarding the objections from his cabinet
colleagues-from his own party and other Left parties-Achuthanandan even threatened
to directly recommend Vijayan's prosecution to the Governor. However, he finally
succumbed to the collective decision of the Cabinet to accept the AG's report.
What had left the party red-faced was that
the secretariat on Saturday had unanimously accepted the AG's report in a
meeting attended by General Secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member S
Ramachandran Pillai.
Party sources said Achuthanandan told the
secretariat on Friday that he was discharging his constitutional obligations.
But the hardliners in the secretariat stuck to their demand that the dissenting
CM should be told to go.
A day after the CBI, which named Vijayan as
an accused, submitted its report in the court, Achuthanandan had rushed to
New Delhi to seek his removal as party secretary. While the Central leadership
considered the case as a politically-motivated one, Achuthanadan did not subscribe
to that view. Achuthanandan claimed his constitutional obligations included
initiating the process of prosecuting Vijayan.
He had also kept away from Vijayan's Nava
Kerala yatra but reluctantly showed up on its last day_which saw the two exchange
barbs in speeches packed with insinuations.
The central leadership had then given an assurance
to the state unit that its complaints against Achuthanadan would be relooked
after the elections. But the crisis boiled over before the results with his
latest act of defiance. The official faction sees this as the best opportunity
to crack the whip on the Chief Minister. With the Assembly elections two years
away, the state unit thinks it has enough time to recover from the impact
the removal of the veteran may have on the party.
