The Congress in Kerala on Thursday allegedly went out of its way to lobby with the Centre to get a draft notification issued on the vexed issue of a report on the protection of Western Ghats in order to appease the Catholic Church, which is leading an agitation against the report, and ally Kerala Congress (M), backed by the Church, and upland settler farmers.
State Home Minister and former PCC president Ramesh Chennithala, Union Minister KV Thomas and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien on Thursday met several Central Ministers and officials to influence them for getting the draft notification issued at the earliest amid allegations that their exercise amounted to violation of the model code of conduct.
The State BJP complained to the Election Commission that Ramesh's efforts were intended at influencing a section of the voters ahead of the 16th lok Sabha election for which the model code of conduct had come into being on Wednesday morning. The party also raised the issue in a meeting held by the State's Chief Electoral Officer in Thiruvananthapuram.
Taming of the Church, settler farmers of the upland regions and the KC(M) had become inevitable for the Congress as a Central decision of November last to implement the K Kasturirangan committee report had sparked intense agitations across the high ranges and is presently set to affect the poll prospects of the Congress-led ruling UDF in at least eight seats.
The Catholic Church, the farmers and the KC(M) have served an ultimatum indirectly on the Congress to somehow get the Centre's November notification defining 123 villages of the high ranges as ecologically sensitive areas where human intervention could not be allowed. The KC(M) is even facing the prospects of a split if a clear picture does not emerge by Friday.
The Congress-led Government in the State had on Tuesday succeeded in forcing the Union Ministry of Environment to issue an office memorandum hinting at the abrogation of the November notification but the Church, the farmers' organisations and the KCM) refused to be satisfied unless a draft notification was issued.
Faced with the possibility of an electoral debacle and even a risk to the survival of the Government, Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday held a series of meetings with Ministers and officials of the Centre in an obvious lobbying exercise, reiterating all the while that the draft notification would be issued without before Friday.
As per reports from Delhi, Union Minister Thomas tried to help Chennithala by meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who reportedly offered to intervene. Kurien contributed to these efforts by holding discussions with Union Environment Minister Veerappa Moily.
Whenever the issue of violation of the model code of conduct was brought to their notice, all Congress leaders including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Moily said that such a question did not arise at all as the office memorandum in this regard was issued by the Environment Ministry well before the announcement of the poll schedule.
Despite all these efforts by the Congress leadership, top clergy of the Catholic Church, the farmers' organizations and a section of the KC(M) are still adamant that they are not ready for any compromise till the issuance of a clearly worded draft notification.