CPM watches VS-Pinarayi blood sport
The CPM’s central leadership’s USP was in tatters with senior leaders of the Kerala unit defying its direction to maintain inner-party discipline and refrain from insulting each other on prime time TV and press conferences.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: The CPM’s central leadership’s USP - the power to enforce its writ on party members - was in tatters with senior leaders of the Kerala unit defying its direction to maintain inner-party discipline and refrain from insulting each other on prime time TV and press conferences.
The central leadership has reasons to be worried as the dominant Pinarayi Vijayan faction has made it clear to the AKG Bhawan bosses that it will not put up with ceasefire directives from the centre if chief minister V S Achuthanandan refuses to mend his ways.
The central leadership had on Wednesday intervened to stall the telecasting of an interview on the party-run channel that virtually demolished chief minister V S Achuthanandan’s sanctimonious image.The interview with a controversial businessman Faris Aboobaker claimed that the chief minister had approached the businessman for personal favours.
The chief minister, who got wind of the plans to nail him, had got in touch with the AKG Bhawan bosses. But the state leadership refused to intervene and stall the telecast of the interview, maintaining that it was a purely journalistic enterprise.
The development is a slap on the face of the central leadership. It had hoped that its tough action of suspending both V S Achuthanandan and his rival Pinarayi Vijayan from the polit bureau would dissuade the two factions from washing dirty political linen in public. The two sides, in fact, have only stepped up attempts to stigmatise each other in the past few weeks.
The chief minister has been resorting to name-calling for attacking opponents he cannot otherwise deal with. Employing the Left’s label of painting the rival as a deviant, the chief minister said the party-run channel was providing platforms to “hated” individuals. The attempt was clearly to strip away credibility from the opinions expressed by the TV channel and the journalists working for the party-controlled organisation.
The fallout of this raging factional feud in the Kerala unit of the CPM is a paralysis of governance. The chief minister has been treating important ministers in his government as factionalists. On their part, the ministerial colleagues of Mr Achuthandan are not making things easy for the chief minister.
The central leadership has reasons to be worried as the dominant Pinarayi Vijayan faction has made it clear to the AKG Bhawan bosses that it will not put up with ceasefire directives from the centre if chief minister V S Achuthanandan refuses to mend his ways.
The central leadership had on Wednesday intervened to stall the telecasting of an interview on the party-run channel that virtually demolished chief minister V S Achuthanandan’s sanctimonious image.The interview with a controversial businessman Faris Aboobaker claimed that the chief minister had approached the businessman for personal favours.
The chief minister, who got wind of the plans to nail him, had got in touch with the AKG Bhawan bosses. But the state leadership refused to intervene and stall the telecast of the interview, maintaining that it was a purely journalistic enterprise.
The development is a slap on the face of the central leadership. It had hoped that its tough action of suspending both V S Achuthanandan and his rival Pinarayi Vijayan from the polit bureau would dissuade the two factions from washing dirty political linen in public. The two sides, in fact, have only stepped up attempts to stigmatise each other in the past few weeks.
The chief minister has been resorting to name-calling for attacking opponents he cannot otherwise deal with. Employing the Left’s label of painting the rival as a deviant, the chief minister said the party-run channel was providing platforms to “hated” individuals. The attempt was clearly to strip away credibility from the opinions expressed by the TV channel and the journalists working for the party-controlled organisation.
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The fallout of this raging factional feud in the Kerala unit of the CPM is a paralysis of governance. The chief minister has been treating important ministers in his government as factionalists. On their part, the ministerial colleagues of Mr Achuthandan are not making things easy for the chief minister.
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