Kerala’s Congress-led Government headed by scam-beleaguered Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will use the toughest possible measures to counter the leftist agitation to be held before the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram from Monday demanding resignation of Chandy over his alleged involvement in the infamous solar scandal.
The plan of the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF is to lay siege to the State Secretariat using tens of thousands of agitators following the models of the famous Wall Street siege and the stirs in various countries during the Arab Spring uprisings. The Government has already made its thinking known by calling in Central paramilitary forces and other tough measures.
As per reports from Delhi, the Union Home Ministry on Thursday decided to send 2,000 CRPF personnel to Thiruvananthapuram to face any eventuality arising out of the leftist struggle. The Government’s determination was obvious also from its decision to grant holiday for educational institutions in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday and Tuesday.
However, Opposition leaders, who have claimed that the agitation would be peaceful, say that Chief Minister Chandy has opted to invite Central forces to face the stir as he is unsure of the support he is expecting from his own Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who is said to have turned his enemy following the solar scam.
“We are not going to create trouble. We are planning to hold one of the most peaceful agitations of Kerala history. But if Chandy is thinking that he could quell the stir of thousands of people with the paramilitary forces’ guns and grenades, he is thoroughly mistaken. He can’t make us withdraw with threats and guns,” said CPI(M) central committee member TM Thomas Isaac.
Sources said that the Intelligence wing of the police had advised Chandy that the Government could resort to clamping prohibitory orders in places where it was expecting trouble. The Government would deploy 5,000 police personnel in full riot gear at the Secretariat and other places to face the agitators.
“Don’t do this foolish thing,” Isaac warned Chandy. “Already you have lost the support of a big section of your own party and most of the constituent parties in the ruling front. Now you want to drown our struggle in blood. It would be better if you just vacate the position of Chief Minister and subject yourself to a judicial probe over the solar scam,” he added.
According to observers, Chandy’s strategy is to take steps like blocking all roads leading to the capital and granting holidays to schools and colleges to ensure that normal life comes to a standstill in the capital and put the blame on the Opposition. “But the problem is that Chandy cannot count on the wholehearted support of even his own party in this,” said a senior journalist.
A senior leader of the Congress’s ‘I’ group, led by State party chief Ramesh Chennithala, said that it was up to Chandy to decide what steps he should take in the situation. “The Chief Minister knows what he should do in such a situation. To know that is his job. We need not advise him on this,” he said, indirectly indicating that his group could remain neutral if things went wrong.