The Congress in Kerala has launched a massive programme to educate district and State-level office bearers of the party in politics, history, literature, arts and fine arts.
This is an initiative by K Sudhakaran, president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee that even senior leaders of the party are ignorant of what is happening in the State as well as the country.
While most of the CPI(M) activists boast of PhD from the party controlled Centre for Development Studies at Thiruvananthapuram, the Congress and other political outfits in the State are not
that lucky.
This is reflected in the debates in television news channels where the CPI(M) representatives mesmerize their rivals with arguments and observations gathered from party literature.
Immediately after getting appointed as party’s Kerala chief, Sudhakaran asked the leaders and cadre alike to take to reading seriously. “Vichar Vibhag”, the propaganda cell of the party which has been in a state of dormant has been activated by Sudhakaran by appointing Shaiju Kelanthara, a leading intellectual as its chairman.
T J Vinod, MLA and former chief of the Ernakulam District Congress Committe told The Pioneer that the party wants to make people understand the sacrifices made by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who fought for the country's freedom.
He launched an innovative scheme by which party cadre by paying a monthly instalment of Rs 500/- could get books worth Rs 6,000/-. “This is being replicated in all 141 assembly constituencies in the State. Our mission is to make the cadre and leaders read great works like My Experiments With Truth by Mahatma Gandhi, Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru and also the classic works authored by the great intellectual of our times Sasi Tharoor,” said Shaiju Kelanthara.
Sudhakaran has left instruction with the State and district level leaders to be present in party offices at least for an hour every day and read newspapers, periodicals and magazines. “The coming days will see Congress deputing articulate spokespersons for TV channel debates to take on the communalists,” said Shaiju Kelanthara.
Anitha Prakash, municipal councillor, Perumbavoor, who also heads the library council, said that she was confident of making the venture a success. "I am interacting with girl students and requesting them to read the great works by eminent Congress scholars," said Anitha.
Congress in Kerala is devoid of any intellectuals as the entire lot has joined the CPI(M) which does not fail to take care of their needs and requirements.
“It is mandatory on the part of the Marxist cadre to read Deshabhimani, the party organ every morning and they consider the materials published in the paper as the last word on any topic under the sun,” said P Rajan, former editor of Mathrubhumi.
The general feeling in Congress camp is that Sudhakaran would make the party intellectually strong and electorally powerful to sweep the 20 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.