Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government and the State’s bar owners on Friday seemed to be moving towards burying the hostility between them which had started on October 31 with the latter accusing a senior Minister of taking a bribe of Rs1 crore for helping them in getting the licences renewed for the bars that had been lying closed since March 31 for lack of facilities.
Indications of the political storm set off by the liquor scam – which had pushed the Government into a grave crisis — settling down came out on Friday with bar owners showing signs of mellowing their antagonistic stand after the reported intervention of mediators from the ruling UDF including a senior Minister and a former Excise minister.
Manoharan, a bar owner who had earlier claimed to have direct knowledge about the payment of Rs1 crore as bribe to Finance and law Minister K M Mani, denied having any knowledge of anything like that. “It was a wrong statement from my side. I had made that statement on the basis of what a friend of mine had told me,” he said.
However, Biju Ramesh, working president of the Kerala Bar Hotels Association who had originally made the allegation against Mani, reiterated late Friday night that the Rs1-crore bribe had indeed been paid in three installments and that Manoharan must have changed his version out of fear. “Those in power are kings,” he said. However, observers refused to believe this.
After appearing before the Vigilance officials probing the bar scam earlier on Friday, Biju Ramesh had said that the money was given to Mani before March 31, the day the 418 bars were closed, and not after that, creating a feeling that he was changing his stand too as part of the reported move to end the standoff with the Government.
Biju Ramesh said he still stood firm in his allegation against Mani, the senior-most member of the UDF Cabinet and chairman of the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest constituent of the ruling front.
He said that he had handed over to the Vigilance officials the primary evidences to back the allegation and that more evidences were being collected.
The allegation against Mani that he had demanded Rs5 crore as bribe from the bar owners and had taken Rs 1 crore had infuriated his party. A KC(M) leader said that the charge was part of a conspiracy to tarnish the image of Mani, hatched by the Congress’s A-group led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and that this could not have happened without his knowledge.
The Government on Friday reacted furiously to the charge that several other Ministers also had taken bribe from the bar owners.The Chief Minister said that it was strange that those who had kept silent so far were now raising wild allegations while Excise Minister K Babu said, “The Government would react strongly to efforts to tarnish everyone by creating smokescreens.”
However, sources close to bar owners said such statements indicated that some understanding was being worked out between the Government and the bar owners. “Otherwise, the Government would not show such boldness to challenge the bar owners who claim to possess evidences to substantiate their allegations,” said a former bar owner from Thrissur.
Observers pointed out that any settlement between the Government and the bar owners could effectively lead to the sabotage of the Government’s plan for total liquor ban in ten years. “No settlement can happen without the Government agreeing to address the bar owners’ grievances. It may mean that many of the closed bars will reopen,” said a senior journalist.