The crisis for Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government over the Central decision to implement the K Kasturirangan Committee report for protection of Western Ghats deepened on Wednesday with chinks widening in one of the major front partners, Kerala Congress (M), and intensification of protests by settler farmers in upland areas.
The crisis followed the Centre’s refusal to issue a draft notification abrogating the direction the Union Environment Ministry had issued on November 13 defining 123 villages of Kerala as ecologically sensitive areas where human intervention could not be permitted as per the recommendations of the Kasturirangan panel.
The Union Government on Tuesday issued an office memorandum promising to issue a notification soon but farmers’ organisations in the high ranges, the Catholic Church supporting the protests and Congress ally Kerala Congress (M) said they would not be satisfied with the memo and that they wanted the November 13 direction to be cancelled.
Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph of the KC(M) skipped a meeting of the State Cabinet on Wednesday morning and the faction he led in the party held a meeting to discuss further programmes. Joseph, also working chairman of the party, later confirmed to the media that he had boycotted the meeting in protest against the Centre’s refusal to issue the notification.
According to sources in the KC(M), there was a strong feeling within the Joseph faction that they should leave the UDF and join the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF which had been supporting the cause of 23 lakh people belonging to the settler farmer community. However, Joseph said he would wait for a couple of days more to see whether a notification would be issued.
KC(M) vice-chairman PC George wrote to party chairman and Finance Minister KM Mani expressing his readiness to resign as the Chief Whip of the Government in protests against the Centre’s insensitivity towards the farmers’ problems. According to George, the KC(M) leaders would not be able to “appear in public” if the November 13 direction was not withdrawn.
Mani, who wants to somehow remain as a Congress ally and to continue in the Government, said his party was still expecting the Centre to issue a notification to abrogate the November 13 direction. It is now apparent that the meeting of the KC(M) high-power committee to be held at Kottayam on Thursday will be stormy.
In an effort to avoid a split in the KC(M) which would directly affect the very existence of the UDF Government surviving on a wafer-thin majority, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress called on Joseph at his residence to appeal not to adopt a “harsh” stand. However, sources close to Joseph said everything depended on the Centre’s response.