Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is known as a shrewd politician who can turn any adverse situation to his advantage. But last week, while briefing the media after a Cabinet meeting, he appeared to have been caught on the wrong foot.
Responding to questions about his public utterances when the campaign for the late K. Karunakaran’s resignation as Chief Minister over the ISRO spy scandal was snowballing in 1995, Mr. Chandy categorically denied having publicly blamed Mr. Karunakaran or demanded his resignation.
When mediapersons pointed out that there was video footage to show that he had castigated Karunakaran and sought his resignation after the Kerala High Court verdict against the then Inspector General of Police Raman Srivastava, Mr. Chandy replied that the media was distorting facts.
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"I never made any statement against Karunkaran. Show me those reports and visuals if you have any to show that I did so," he told reporters, adding that satellite TV news channels had not even started operation in Kerala at the time.
The Chief Minister's observations soon triggered a mad scramble for archival data.
Within hours, news channels went on air with footage showing Mr. Chandy fulminating against the then Chief Minister, holding him squarely responsible for the credibility crisis that the government faced.
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For once, Mr. Chandy appears to have bitten off more than he could chew.
Throughout his political career, former Government Chief Whip and Kerala Congress (M) leader P.C. George has shown an uncanny knack to keep his foes on tenterhooks with threats that he is in possession of explosive stuff that could embarrass them. Now, it turns out that a ‘bomb’ has been ticking away in his backyard without his knowledge. Worse, it was planted there by T.S. John, whom he had handpicked to lead the Kerala Congress (Secular) even as he went through the process of severing his ties with the Kerala Congress (M).
Till his exit from the KC(M), Mr. George associated with the Kerala Congress (Secular) as a special invitee. He continued to associate with the KC(S) in that capacity not realising that Mr. John had other plans. Last week, Mr. John came out with the announcement that the party would no longer have any special invitee and, with that one stroke, Mr. George was out of the party.
Earlier, he had been thrown out of the party by Eapen Varghese, who was with Mr. George when the KC (Secular) was originally carved out of the KC(J). Now, Mr George, who is trying hard for a membership in the LDF, is left with no organisation to represent.
Congress legislator A.P. Abdullakutty appears to be a happy man these days. How can he not be when he has received somewhat of a clean chit from the solar scam accused Saritha S. Nair, who had earlier pointed an accusing finger at him? Saritha’s present stance is that she was encouraged by Mr. Abdullakutty’s rival in the Congress to level charges against him. That should have come as music to Mr. Abdullakutty’s ears, especially since he is striving hard to retain the Kannur seat for another term.
According to Congress insiders, one person who is unhappy about the sudden turn of events is Mr. Abdullakutty’s one-time mentor K. Sudhakaran, who reportedly has an eye on the seat. Mr. Abdullakutty, who had been expelled from the CPI(M), had first got elected from the seat after it was vacated by Mr. Sudhakaran to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election from the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency.
With inputs from
T. Nandakumar (Thiruvananthapuram), George Jacob
(Kottayam),
Mohamed Nazeer (Kannur)
For once, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy appears to have bitten off more than he could chew