As the standoff between Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and PCC president VM Sudheeran over the question of reopening of the 418 ‘substandard’ bars remaining closed since April 1 is worsening, the Congress high command has asked both the leaders to settle the issue amicably at the earliest.
The Congress high command intervened in the issue following reports that the party-Government standoff over the bar closure issue was set to cause an explosion in the State party and create discord in the Congress-led ruling UDF. The national party leadership also told Chandy and Sudheeran that the settlement of the issue should happen in Kerala itself.
Congress sources said that Ahmed Patel, political advisor to national party president Sonia Gandhi, had talked with both Sudheeran and Chandy over the phone and asked them not to allow the situation to go out of hand by letting it be dragged onto the streets when the crucial local bodies election was to take place next year.
The high command has also asked the two Kerala leaders to avoid making public statements on the bar closure issue. However, Patel has not made any specific proposal regarding how the issue could be settled. The high command has also not been able to say who — Sudheeran or Chandy — should soften stand.
Sudheeran has taken a principled position that the closed bars should not be allowed to reopen under any circumstances saying that this is the sentiment of the people generally and of the general body of the Congress while Chandy and a large section in the UDF Government want the quality bars among the closed 418 should be allowed to resume operation.
On Tuesday, Sudheeran reiterated that the 418 bars should remain closed forever as the goal of the Congress as well as the UDF was to bring down availability and consumption of liquor. He said that there should be no efforts to renew the licences of these bars with the justification that bar operations would bring revenue to the State.
“Do you think my stand, I mean party’s stand — that the bars should not be reopened — has changedIJ” he asked mediapersons on Tuesday. Sudheeran had last month written a letter to the Chief Minister saying that the general sentiment of the State Congress’s general body and the executive was against the reopening of the closed bars.
The Centre’s intervention came just when the Government-party standoff was nearing a flashpoint with the Congress’s ‘A’ group headed by Chandy had begun intense lobbying to find more supporters in the party and the Government for the stand of the Chief Minister and his enemies stepping up their campaign against reopening of the bars.
For the moment, Sudheeran seems to be winning the ego war against Chandy over the bars issue with two major allies of the Congress in the ruling UDF — the Muslim league and the Kerala Congress (M) — demanding the permanent closure of the 418 bars. However, a determined Chandy is trying his level best to win the support of the minor UDF constituents.