Dissent is growing within Kerala’s Congress party against the “autocratic” attitude that PCC president VM Sudheeran is allegedly adopting under the guise of attempts to end groupism in the context of the organisational revamp and his uncompromising posture on the question of reopening the 418 substandard bars closed on April 1.
Congress leaders who do not want to be identified, are now saying that Sudheeran’s posturing as the “omnipotent” leader of the State party and his orders banning group activities will only weaken the party instead of keeping it unified. Sudheeran had the other day warned leaders against holding group meetings in connection with the organisational restructuring.
Though Congress leaders have so far been protesting against Sudheeran’s attitude silently, senior leader MM Jacob has now come out with open and sharp criticisms against his style of functioning. While talking to a TV channel on Thursday, Jacob said that leaders were reluctant to criticise Sudheeran for fear of losing their posts and getting expelled from the party.
“That the closed bars should not be reopened is Sudheeran’s personal opinion. The KPCC has not taken any such decision”, Jacob said. Sudheeran holds that the 418 bars closed in the name of lack of facilities should not be reopened under any circumstance while, the two prominent groups in the party hold that the quality bars among them should be allowed to operate.
Referring to Sudheeran’s warning that Congress leaders who convene group meetings and those who participate in such meetings would face stringent action, Jacob said the other day that Sudheeran would soon be convinced that group activities would not weaken the Congress but would only become more active because groupism was a style of functioning of Kerala’s party.
Jacob, a former Union Minister and a former Governor, also asked Sudheeran to apply self-restraint while commenting on public matters and avoid doing guesswork on such subjects. Observers are of the opinion that Jacob’s open criticisms of Sudheeran may embolden several other leaders to air their dissent.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had appointed Sudheeran as the Kerala PCC chief on February 10 with the goal of putting an end to the battles in the State party between the ‘A’ group headed by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the ‘I’ group led by Home Minister and former PCC president Ramesh Chennithala.
Jacob also did not forget to state that the coordination between the Congress-led UDF Government and KPCC was not effective presently.
“There was greater coordination when Chennithala was the KPCC president. Chandy and Chennithala had then cooperated with each other for ensuring Government-party coordination”, he said.
Regarding Sudheeran’s unrelenting position that closed bars should not be reopened, Jacob said that this was not the opinion of the entire party as there had not been a voting in the KPCC on the subject. He said there was dissent against Sudheeran’s attitude within the party but, most leaders were afraid of airing it openly.
“People are not fools. They know what they should drink and what they should not. They should be given the limited freedom to do that”, he said.
A senior journalist with a pro-Congress newspaper said that Jacob did not have much following in the party but it was clear that he had got clearance from other leaders to level criticism against Sudheeran.
A war is on between Sudheeran and the Government on whether the closure of the 418 bars had led to any fall in liquor consumption in the State. While Sudheeran argues that there has been a fall in consumption and in criminal cases related to boozing, Excise Minister K Babu, a Chandy-loyalist, says consumption has actually gone up.