Kerala bar bribery: left may suspend anti-FM stir

Kerala’s CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF, facing the allegation of playing ‘politics of adjustment’ with the Congress-led Government, may soon end its agitation against tainted State Finance Minister KM Mani over the infamous bar bribery scam just like it had withdrawn from the stir against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy over the solar scam.

The Opposition had undertaken several agitations against the Chandy Government in the past four years but it has failed to convert any of them into success. The stir over the bar bribery scam demanding Mani’s resignation for allegedly accepting `1-crore bribe from bar owners also might meet with similar fate, sources said.

The State Vigilance had held a seven-month-long formal probe against Mani in the bar bribery scam but agency Director Vinson M Paul had on June 27 decided not to recommend filing a chargesheet against the Minister despite the reported finding of clinching evidences against him by the investigating team.

The left — particularly the CPI(M) — is planning to end the eight-month long agitation against Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress(M) which is third biggest constituent of the Congress-led ruling UDF, in the bar bribery scam as part of a strategy in the context of its inability to cash in on the scandal in the recent Assembly bypoll in Aruvikkara constituency.

The lDF had fought the by-election on the plank of the UDF Government’s alleged corruption, which had become obvious in the solar and bar bribery scandals. However, the issues failed to click and the UDF’s Congress candidate KS Sabarinathan beat the lDF’s CPI(M) nominee M Vijayakumar by a margin of over 10,000 votes.

A major section in the left is of the view that winning the next Assembly election, due in April, 2016, can be impossible without bringing in new allies to the front. Efforts are already on to bring back to the lDF the RSP and a section of the Janata Dal-S — which recently merged with the Janata Dal-U) — which had left the front in 2014 and 2009 respectively.

Along with this, there is also a reported plan to woo the KC(M) group led by party working chairman and Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph. The Joseph faction KC(M) was part of the lDF till 2010. Some senior CPI(M) leaders feel that continuing with the agitation against Mani could jeopardise this plan.

The lDF had earlier made a secret bid to bring the KC(M) to its side but it had to be dropped after the images of that party and Mani got tarnished following the eruption of the bar bribery scam. A section in the left now feels that the KC(M) leaders who had then aired willingness to ally with the left may still be open to the idea if the hard stand against Mani is abandoned.

However, the lDF leadership knows that it will be difficult to convince the activists and people on the need to end the anti-Mani stir at this stage, especially as they have not yet been able to justify the act of withdrawing from the stir over the solar scam, an act which gave credibility to the charge that the lDF was playing ‘politics of adjustment’ with the UDF.

The unconvincing reason given for the ending of a siege of the State Secretariat in August, 2013 over the solar scam within 30 hours of its start was that the Chief Minister had announced a judicial probe into the scandal. But the fact is that Chandy had not made any commitment over including his office in the purview of such an inquiry, which was the main demand of the left.

Critics within the lDF of the plan to end the anti-Mani stir say that ‘some similar lame justification’ could be given for suspending the bar bribery agitation also. “Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan has stated that he would fight the bar bribery case in the court and the leadership may make this an excuse for withdrawing from the agitation,” said a source.