Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) appeased and influenced Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan to change his stance on the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case. He was inaugurating an election meeting of K.A. Sheeba, United Democratic Front candidate for the Alathur Lok Sabha constituency, at Kuzhalmannam near here.
Mr. Chandy said Mr. Achuthanandan had asked the party to take action against any member involved in the murder. Instead of trying to correct mistakes on the advice of a senior party leader such as Mr. Achuthanandan, the CPI(M) had tried to influence him to force a change in his stance. He said the change of stance of Mr. Achuthanandan would erode his credibility among the people.
Mr. Chandy said the earlier stance of the Leader of the Opposition had evoked positive response from the people who were against the “politics of murder” practised by the CPI(M). The people would punish the CPI(M) for its violent politics in the elections.
Mr. Chandy alleged that the CPI(M) was opposing the pro-people policies of the government.
When the government wanted grama panchayats to pay the wages of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers from unused funds due to delay in getting Central allotment, the CPI(M)-ruled local bodies refused to do it. No party that wanted to help the people in difficulty would take such a stance, Mr. Chandy said.
He said the CPI(M) was running a campaign against the government that it was going to cut down the power subsidy given to farmers.
Later, replying to a question on cooperative banks controlled by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) refusing to implement a directive to deposit money in the treasury to tide over the finance crunch, he said the cooperative banks should implement the directive. Any non-compliance would be examined by the government, he said.
