By removing Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan from the Politburo, the CPM has treaded the middle path. Action could have been harsher.
Had a section of the Politburo led by party chief Prakash Karat had its way, Achuthanandan could have been stripped of the Central Committee membership and the CM’s post too.
He gets to continue as the CM because of his mass following, riding as he is into the sunset of his career.
If the CPM hopes infighting will end now, then good luck to the communists. The CM is unlikely to give up. In the Capital,
he told reporters: “I accept the party’s decision but I’ll continue to fight against corruption.” If this happens, they could go round in circles again.
Achuthanandan was fated to face action, unfairly some would say.
The Politburo was all for action on a belligerent CM rather than ways to tame factionalism. Vijayan has been handed a clean-chit.
At the root of this was alleged wrongdoing in award of a Rs 390-crore contract to Canadian power firm SNC Lavalin Inc. The CBI named Vijayan as an accused.
The CPM has vouched for many CBI probes, from the Kargil coffin case to blacklisting of Isreali defence firms. But in the Lavlin case, the party stood by Vijayan, while Achuthanandan refused to do so. The final nail in the coffin was his public utterances ahead of the elections that kept the Lavlin pot boiling.
{{/usCountry}}The CPM has vouched for many CBI probes, from the Kargil coffin case to blacklisting of Isreali defence firms. But in the Lavlin case, the party stood by Vijayan, while Achuthanandan refused to do so. The final nail in the coffin was his public utterances ahead of the elections that kept the Lavlin pot boiling.
{{/usCountry}}