Chandy regime has given Kerala a new name
The four-year-old Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala is writhing in a stinking pit of scams: Solar scam, bar bribery scam, budget sales scam, PWD scam, and more. The alleged corruption in the Government and the parties that drive it, is so extensive that even the office of the Chief Minister is not exempt from the rot. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is facing the charge of allowing his office to be used by alleged con-woman Saritha S Nair to carry out her fraudulent business in solar power, through which she duped many Keralites of several crores of rupees. Several Ministers, MPs and MlAs of the Congress and its allies are accused of taking money from her and sexually abusing her. Then came the bar bribery scam. The first disclosure in this series was that Finance and law Minister KM Mani of the Kerala Congress(M), the third biggest UDF constituent, had taken one crore rupees as bribe from the State's bar owners.
Mr Mani, the senior-most member of the Chandy Cabinet, is also accused of making money by leaking out Budget proposals in advance to interested business sectors. His son Jose K Mani's name figures in the intriguing ‘prison notes' of Saritha Nair, among the list of Congress and UDF leaders who had abused her sexually. As per the latest disclosures, Excise Minister K Babu, a close aide of Mr Chandy and the man who is supposed to be regulating the liquor sector, had reportedly taken Rs10 crore as bribe from bar owners. Two other Ministers are also facing allegations in the scam. PWD Minister Ibrahim Kunju of the Muslim league, the second biggest UDF constituent, is charged with making huge sums of money through manipulations of contracts. Despite all these disgusting disclosures, neither Mr Chandy nor any other accused Minister has so far felt the need of resigning. Instead, the Government sacked its own Chief Whip for demanding Mr Mani’s resignation over the bar and Budget sale scandals, and alienated from the ruling front a minor partner for pointing out alleged corruptions of the PWD Minister and others.
Cracks are developing rapidly in the UDF over these developments. Minor partners are worried that the front and the Government have lost face and that the local bodies’ election to be held in September and the Assembly poll of April 2016, will be nightmares. But the group’s managers in the State Congress are viewing the scams as weapons to fight their enemies within the party. Ironically, the Congress high command seems to be unperturbed by all these developments in a State which is among the few where some vestiges of the graft-devastated party still remain. Surprisingly, the CPI(M)-led Opposition is sitting almost idle, wrapped in the complacency that the people of Kerala will automatically enthrone them soon. It appears that the two main political formations of God's Own Country have forgotten their responsibilities to the people.