The attempts of the Congress leadership to find a consensus on various issues, particularly on the liquor policy, at the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC)-Government Coordination Committee meeting on Tuesday reached nowhere.
What emerged at the end of discussions that lasted for over four hours was a general “agree to disagree” sort of understanding between leaders that would discourage damaging public statements on the liquor policy that showed the party in a bad light.
The operative part of this general understanding is that the State government would go ahead with its practical policies, while KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran would continue to work towards prohibition, but no attempt would be made to isolate him on the issue considering the fact that a majority of the party leaders were opposed to his stand on the liquor policy.
The meeting witnessed verbal sparring, with leaders expressing the opinion that the 10-month-long protracted debate on the policy had only served to project the Congress as a divided house. The party could not make any political gains while announcing a stringent liquor policy or from its amended version. It was in this context that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and other leaders called for an end to controversies and public debates.
Mr. Sudheeran is understood to have taken an uncompromising position on the liquor policy.
Some of the leaders expressed their reservations over the KPCC president’s failure to make any political statement against the party’s principal opponent, the Left Democratic Front, particularly the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which went on the offensive against the United Democratic Front government during the recent Assembly session.
The Chief Minister informed the meeting that the government would consider favourably the KPCC subcommittee’s recommendation to restructure the hike in building tax announced by the government recently.
