Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003
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Kerala
By Girish Menon
Mr. Karunakaran has been a carping critic of the Antony Government ever since it assumed power. He has not hesitated to openly express his opinions on various issues, be it the Government's handling of the Government employees strike, the power tariff hike decision or its reform agenda or its police policy. These open expressions of dissent have in fact embarrassed the Government on quite a few occasions. But the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, has chosen to ignore Mr. Karunakaran's continuous criticisms. At one level, he has constantly maintained that Mr. Karunakaran was entitled to his views, being the senior most politician in the country and the Congress karnavar,'' At another level, he has carefully worked up the situation where in he has constantly refused to fulfil most of Mr. Karunakaran's demands. His police policy has been mainly aimed at ensuring that the veteran leader is not able to wield the clout he possess by virtue of being at the helm of affairs in the Congress and in Government as Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition for decades. Mr. Karunakaran continues to insist that the police policy is against the aspirations of the ordinary Congressman. Mr. Karunakaran draws consolation from the fact that his attacks against the police policy have helped him gather sympathisers, some of them prominent Antony loyalists. However, he has not exactly succeeded in translating the sympathy into a real movement against the Chief Minister. Mr. Karunakaran feels that Mr. Antony cannot claim to have made any contributions to his Government on his own. Most of the projects the UDF Government has announced are the ones which were prepared by the LDF Government, and these are being merely implemented without even a rethink or correction to suit the party's long term interests, he feels. Mr. Karunakaran's moves have also been interpreted as an attempt to keep his faction active and fighting fit, even though his supporters are feeling suffocated caught as they are between his son, K. Muraleedharan, KPCC president, and his daughter, Padmaja Venugopal. In recent days, especially after the KPCC leadership meeting in Kochi, Mr. Muraleedharan had been making attempts to gain control over the Karunakaran faction, while at the same time promoting his own set of loyalists such as the KPCC vice-president, M.I. Shanawaz and N. Venugopalan. He has realised that without the support of at least a section of the Karunakaran faction it would be difficult for him to retain his equations with the Chief Minister for long. Mr. Antony himself had indicated as much during the leadership meet when he lamented that even though the KPCC president was giving him full support, he was not too sure about those who were with him. Mr. Antony has utilised Mr. Muraleedharan's support to blunt Mr. Karunakaran's attacks against him. It is in this background that Mr. Karunakaran's criticism of the ADB and the Global Investment Meet assumes importance. It signals an attempt on his part to give an ideological base for his fight against the official leadership of the Congress. Such a position would also help him get closer to the Opposition LDF, which too has been trying to find new ideological issues to keep its opposition to the Antony Government live and kicking.
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