Kerala’s CPI(M)-led lDF is approaching the crucial May 16 Assembly election with a very positive campaign catchphrase, a line taken from Bob Marley’s famous song, No Woman No Cry: “Everything’s gonna be alright” (in Malayalam, Ellam Sariyakum). But the Front, which seems to be convinced somehow that it is destined to win this election, has not so far been able to put forward an action plan by which things are going to be all right in the scam-ravaged State.
Poll analysts are of the opinion that despite the beauty of the campaign adage, the left is yet to identify even the areas that should figure in its manifesto, which is expected to be released within some days, as priority. Sources within the CPI(M) admit that the party at this juncture has only general ideas but an accurate roadmap is to be developed in the coming days.
That the left has not even thought of how it is going to formulate its strategy on one of the most crucial issues going to be discussed in this election, the liquor policy, became clear in its rather ambiguous response to the Congress-headed ruling UDF’s challenge to state its position on the matter.
The UDF, which desperately wants to divert the attention of the electorate to the liquor policy from the infamous stories on its Ministers allegedly accepting crores of rupees from bar owners as bribe in the name of that policy, put forward a question to the lDF: Will it reopen the 700-odd bars the present regime had closed down as part of its “prohibition-in-ten-years” policyIJ
“The left had not expected such a cunning question to be posed to it so openly at this early stage. It was a trap set by the UDF. Falling into it, CPI(M) leaders hastily responded with a No though the left’s declared policy is to bring down booze consumption by encouraging renunciation and not through Prohibition,” said BS Panicker, a Kochi-based sociologist.
“In this State where several forces like the mighty Catholic Church are clamouring for total booze ban, the left, which wants to take a liberal stand, is a confused lot. It may be standing for encouragement of renunciation but it obviously doesn’t know how to go about it. Also, the CPI(M) seems to be lacking strategists who can deal with situations like this,” he added.
On Saturday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the chief proponent of the “prohibition through phases” theory, claimed that the UDF had scored its first victory in the Assembly election campaign with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri stating the other day that the left would not take steps to open the bars closed by the Congress-led Government.
liquor is not the only area where the left is unclear about what it is going to promise the electorate as an answer to the question why people should vote it to power. The left has already come to the conclusion that the development of Kerala is at a critical juncture but it is yet to clarify how its development perspective is going to be different from that of the UDF.
“We know that the Congress’ idea is development at any cost. We also know that most of the top Marxist leaders are people who share this perspective. Will the left say that forests and wetlands would not suffer in the name of developmentIJ If it can’t, what kind of development policy would it put forwardIJ” asked PVS Warrier, senior journalist.