The possibility of the CPI(M)-led ruling lDF and the Congress-led Opposition UDF joining hands against the Centre on the demonetisation issue has got dimmer with the Government and the Opposition locking horns over the way the former has been handling the State’s financial affairs in the context of the note freeze even as the Finance Minister has said a whole year may be required for the crisis the State Treasury is facing in the new situation to blow over.
“How can there be a joint stir when he is talking like thisIJ” asked Marxist Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac referring to the allegation leveled by Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress that the former had failed to take the right steps in preparing for the first payday — December 1 — since demonetisation. Isaac even described Chennithala — though indirectly — as a worshipper of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Chennithala had a few days ago expressed readiness to join hands with the left in an agitation against the BJP-led Central Government over its refusal to allow the cooperative banks to exchange and accept the demonetised currency notes like the commercial banks despite State Congress president VM Sudheeran repeatedly saying that the party was strong enough to hold agitations on its own.
The plan seemed to justify State BJP’s oft-repeated allegation that the lDF and UDF were playing adjustment politics by which they cooperated with each other for defending common interests. However, the new war between the two fronts has reached such a stage that the left is now calling the Congress the “B-Team of the BJP” as Chennithala has been criticising the State Government over a problem that originated in the Centre.
The State Treasury branches had seen heavy rush of Government employees and pensioners on December 1 but the Government had not been able to pay all of them even the permitted amount of Rs24,000 each due to insufficient supply of cash. Isaac had blamed the Reserve Bank by saying that it had betrayed the Government by not providing the volume of cash it had promised to supply during a meeting held on November 29.
“The State Government failed in foreseeing the crisis and taking the right steps. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had foreseen the possible crisis and asked the RBI for cash much in advance. But Isaac was holding a road show when employees and pensioners were having a hard time due to their inability to get money,” Chennithala said the other day, referring to the visits the Finance Minister had made to various Treasury branches in the State on December 1.
Reacting to Chennithala’s criticism, Isaac, himself an economist, said on Saturday, “He need not teach me what currency demonetisation is. This shows the Congress has become a B-Team of the BJP. The Opposition leader is making such statements in order to hide the fact that he is rapidly becoming irrelevant. Those who had promised to agitate against the Centre are now justifying it.”
Continuing his tirade against Chennithala, Isaac said on Sunday, “The PM’s demonetisation statement threw him into a stupor. These Modi-worshippers took two days to come out of it.” The Opposition leader also was not prepared to withdraw from the war. “I have nothing personal against Isaac. But I reiterate that the State Government had failed in informing the Centre about the State’s problems,” he said on Sunday.
At the same time, Isaac said that a whole year might be required for the functions of the State Treasury to return to normal. “This is because the cash supply would be back to normal only by then.”
He said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told him that a year was needed for printing notes equivalent to the amount that had been withdrawn. “The revenues, not only of Kerala but of all States, are falling because of the cash crisis,” he said.