The Congress appears to be heading towards a new controversy over the Comptroller and Auditor General’s adverse remarks on the Vizhinjam agreement and the State government moving for a judicial probe into the deal, leading to the demand for convening the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) to discuss its fallout.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee vice president V.D. Satheeshan on Monday wrote to KPCC president M.M. Hassan demanding the convening of the PAC at the earliest to discuss the issue. According to party sources, the current move is for a meeting of the three senior leaders Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and Mr. Hassan to prepare the party’s line on the Vizhinjam project in the new political context.
However, leaders like Mr. Satheeshan have opposed the move to confine the discussions among the three leaders in the light of the moves of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the LDF government to politically corner the party on the Vizhinjam deal.
According to them, the party high command had establish the PAC in order to facilitate wider discussions among leaders on crucial political matters and pronounce the party line on the basis of such discussions. Even if all the members were not in station, the directive was to hold discussions with available members. When the CAG report was tabled in the Assembly, there were at least 10 PAC members in the State capital for discussions, but the senior leaders preferred to ignore it.
The move to get the PAC to discuss the Vizhinjam developments does not seem to be connected to factional moves, but it does, however, highlight the discomfort that party leaders have about the CAG’s adverse remarks. According to sources close to Mr. Satheeshan, the KPCC vice president would have to adopt a line since he was the chairman of the Public Account Committee, which would have to examine the CAG report. It was in this context that he had written to the party leadership asking for a wider discussion on the issue, they said.
