The Kerala factor of BJP, which has been reeling under the countless memes featuring their national and state leaders following the 'Janaraksh Yathra' by its state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, has scored a political brownie point over archrivals CPM on Wednesday. BJP leader K Surendran put the state CPM leadership on the back foot when he racked up CPM state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's use of a Mini Cooper car during Jana Jagratha Yatra at Koduvally in Kozhikode. Surendran alleged that the Mini Cooper belonged to Karat Faisal, a gold smuggling accused, exposing the 'friendship' of certain CPM leaders with the neo-rich businessmen in the state.
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan is the second CPM leader from the powerful Kannur lobby to court a controversy over use of luxury cars for their travel. His compatriot and former Industries Minister E P Jayarajan was the first one after he used a Land Rover to arrive at a Karshaga Sangam meeting at Kottayam in 2013. The car belonged to a Kottayam based contractor.
The critics of the CPM leadership on this occasion are not ready to accept that it was a poor oversight from the part of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who is a career politician with several decades of public life. On the contrary, such incidents point towards the dilution of communist ideals in Kerala CPM, the only state in the country where the party has considerable cadre strength. The party, which has been struggling to put up a brave face against allegations on their coalition partners', has now come up with lame excuses to safeguard their state secretary, stating that the car was a rented one and the party did not own a car in Koduvally.
CPM leaders, who have been instructed by the party to adhere to a modest lifestyle, have no ethical compulsion to stick on to the communist ideals. Indian Union Muslim League state secretary, M C Mayin Haji, who sought an investigation in to the Mini-Cooper controversy, has alleged that the incident exposes the links of CPM with the hawala mafia in the state. "It is a well kept secret that many of the party leaders have links with rich businessmen. Such issues are some time raised in the party meetings but are muffled by the powerful party leadership," a CPM cadre, on request of anonymity says.
CPM leadership in Kerala had faced strong criticism over the foreign education of children of some of the leaders, when CPM was spearheading a struggle against privatization of professional education in the state. Later, controversy erupted over these children being employed with the companies of some NRI businessmen from Kerala. The party is now trying hard to save its face over the allegations against Kerala Transport Minister Thomas Chandy, who was accused of grabbing acres of government land for his resort in Alappuzha. The voters of Kerala opted for CPM after five years of corrupt governance by the Congress led United Democratic Front but the party has been having a far from perfect ruling in the state. The ideological degradation of CPM has been highlighted as the reason for the growth of BJP in the state, which managed to get its maiden Assembly seat through O Rajagopal during last elections.
OneIndia News
