Kerala leaders seem united as scams hit people
Kerala's Congress-led UDF Government is going through an unprecedented crisis with a big section in the Congress led by its State president VM Sudheeran, the Catholic Church and some coalition constituents opposing Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's decision to dilute his own pet liquor policy envisaging total booze ban within 10 years and Finance and law Minister KM Mani, senior-most member of the Chandy Cabinet and chairman of the Church-backed Kerala Congress (M), becoming first accused in a liquor-related bribe case being probed by Vigilance.
It is now clear that Mr Chandy had not announced the liquor policy out of any craving to create a liquor-free Kerala, but out of compulsions of Congress groups’ war and pressures from the church. Mr Chandy's recent decision to make “practical” changes to the liquor policy and the frailties inherent in the policy which were causing adverse rulings and remarks from the judiciary are proof of the hypocrisy and insincerity behind the State Government's moves.
The implementation of the policy had started with a decision not to renew the licences of 418 bars closed down on March 31 for lack of required facilities. The Mani factor comes here. The charge levelled by a prominent bar owner against Mr Mani is that he demanded a bribe of five crore rupees and had taken one crore rupees for helping the bar owners get the licences of the closed bars renewed.
Mr Mani's party believes that the allegation is the result of a conspiracy by the Congress, particularly the Chief Minister, to fetter the veteran politician in the context of reports that he was trying to become Chief Minister through some unholy alliance. What is more appalling is the fresh charge that Mr Mani had collected Rs27.4 crore in the form of bribes through what the Opposition calls “Budget sales”, which involve taking money from concerned sectors for including tax benefits in the Budget proposals.
Several of the Ministers in the Chandy Cabinet have faced and are facing vigilance cases —and the Chief Minister himself had faced some — but Mr Mani is the first Minister in Kerala's history to be accused in a case of direct bribe. Still, he does not feel the necessity of stepping down, at least till the probe is over. To make matters worse,
Congress's Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, the man who should be directing the vigilance, met Mr Mani in secret and declared, “Mani is totally safe”, generating suspicion that the probe would never be fair. At the same time, the now-on-now-off protests within the Assembly and outside by the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF have strengthened the suspicion that they are in a secret pact with the Congress-led Government. In short, the ruling coalition, mired in scams since it came to power 43 months ago, and the left, which has consistently failed in nailing the Government despite all those scams, do not seem to care for what the people feel about all this.