Pinarayi loyalists send SOS to Delhi legal eagles

NEW DELHI: Have the nerves started fraying? Or is it just a case of Kerala’s self-proclaimed ‘reformist group’ scurrying to seek the aid of Delhi’s legal eagles in “extreme personal emergency”?

Guess whom did the Pinarayi Vijayan group in Kerala’s LDF government rush to when the High Court took up a PIL questioning the propriety of the Left government’s reversing the previous regime’s order of a CBI inquiry into the multi-crore Lavalin scam!

No, not to the battery of legal experts led by the advocate general at the disposal of the state government. Instead, they took a long dash to Delhi and hired two leading Supreme Court criminal lawyers — Mr C S Vaidyanathann and Mr R K Anand. More ironically, the PIL was filed by EMS Cultural Group, a group of rebel Leftists owing allegiance to the principles set by legendary Marxist leader E M S Namboodirippad.
Not only are the LDF’s political rivals mocking at this panic-rush, even the EMS group and other Left activists have called it an act of desperation to keep state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan away from the heat of a CBI probe into the kick-back case, which allegedly took place during his stint as power minister.
But as defenders of the government, or rather the CPM faction, rightly point out, this was not the first time the state government has sought outside legal expertise. In fact, even the minority education Bill, piloted by state education minister M A Baby, which was struck down by the high court on Thursday, had been defended by leading lawyers from Delhi.

In Delhi, R K Anand reacted on the development thus: “The LDF government approached me to take up this case. I am a professional lawyer who appears for cases that interest me, so I went and pleaded the case in the High Court. I have done my job, it is now for the court to give the verdict.”

For Mr Anand, like some of his counterparts, politically troubled leaders rushing to his doorstep is nothing new. After all, the Lavalin case is just another one for a lawyer who has represented many troubled leaders like Narasimha Rao, V C Shukla and Shibu Soren in corruption cases in the past.

But what makes the situation tricky for Mr Pinarayi and his home minister, Kodiyeri Balakrsihan, was the difficulty in explaining, in moral and political terms, to the political gallery as well the high court as to why the case was handed over to the state vigilance department, manned by the state home minister, by taking it away from the CBI.

Understandably, the court hearing was widely reported in the media. “How come the state government, which keeps saying it is clean on the issue, gets rattled at the prospect of a CBI probe?” High Court chief justice V K Bali pointedly asked after the hearing, causing some ripples in the courtroom and outside.

To that, the defence counsel replied that the whole issue was meant to “target one individual, Pinarayi Vijayan” and that PILs were, at times, used for “destroying political careers”. He also pleaded that the reports by CAG (which indicted the Lavalin deal) need not always prompt a CBI inquiry and that there was nothing to suggest that the state vigilance wing will not conduct a fair probe.
The CBI lawyer, confronted by the bench about the state government’s claim that the central agency was not keen to take up the probe, humbly submitted that it will be ready to probe the scam if the court orders so. The CJ, who is due to retire from service later this month, has reserved the orders, with parties expecting the order anytime next week.

The widely reported question from Chief Justice Bali (as to why the state government was panicky about a CBI probe) has, incidentally, revived memories of how a galaxy of CPM leaders including Mr Praksh Karat, Mr Sitaram Yechury, Mr Pinarayi Vijayan and Mr V S Achuthanandan, had publicly declared in Kerala during the last Assembly elections that “the CPM has nothing to hide in the Lavalin case and the party is ready to face any kind of investigation.”

Their bravado, at that point, was a reaction to the UDF decision to get the CBI to probe the case. But it still remains a mystery as to why the home minister of the newly formed LDF regime rushed to replace the CBI with the state vigilance department to probe the case.

At least chief minister V S Achuthanandan has publicly distanced himself from the somersault of his government on the CBI probe, saying, once again, that he was not party to the decision and that he will give his personal view on the matter “at an appropriate time later”.

Mr Achuthanandan has still not kept the word, but early this week before taking off to Kolkata for the polit bureau meeting, and at a time when the court hearing was progressing, he publicly said that the Rs 360-crore Lavalin deal “had robbed the state of Rs 90 crore and that the Canada-based firm deserved to be blacklisted”.

The court verdict is crucial for Mr Pinarayi and Co, even as the inner-party tussle is delicately poised. If he gets the CBI off his back, it’ll will give him the much-needed mental and political space to keep the V S faction engaged, from a position of strength, in the state CPM power struggle.

An adverse verdict, on the other hand, could expose him to charges of a ‘failed cover-up’ bid and could, more importantly, trigger off demands for his resignation as CPM state boss. Such a situation could pose a big challenge to the leadership of the CPM, which like other Left parties, put much premium on the ‘morality and probity’ of its leadership. Kerala’s political scene, it seems, has some potential new twists in store as the countdown for the High Court order starts.