Two developments on Thursday seem to test the Communist Party of India (Marxist)‘s [CPI(M)] role as the ruling Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) main anchor of stability.
For one, the Communist Party of India (CPI) ratcheted up, somewhat stridently, its demand for Additional Director General of Police M.R. Ajith Kumar’s removal from the top law and order post for allegedly parleying in secret with the top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leadership.
Secondly, the “factional convulsions” inside the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) for supplanting A.K. Saseendran with Thomas K. Thomas in the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet broke out in the open again, constraining the CPI(M) to act decisively soon.
The CPI, which has been openly at odds with the governemnt over Mr. Ajith Kumar’s continuance in office, fired another shot across the bows of the CPI(M) in a hard-hitting opinion piece in Thursday’s edition of the party’s newspaper Janayugam.
CPI national executive member K. Prakash Babu wrote that Mr. Ajith Kumar’s “clandestine transactions” with the top RSS leadership ran against the LDF’s intrinsic anti-fascist, secular, and pro-minority line. He argued that the officer’s “political deviation” was jarringly apparent. Mr. Babu asserted that the politically damaging divergence from LDF policy warranted immediate action and rendered any official inquiry redundant.
In what appeared to be a barbed reminder to the government, Mr. Babu said the maxim that justice delayed was justice denied applied equally to the judiciary and the political executive.
LDF convener T.P. Ramakrishnan responded that the CPI was entitled to its opinion. “A high-level probe is on to find out what transpired at the meeting,” he said.
More trouble seemed to come CPI(M)‘s way, with Mr. Thomas openly staking his claim to replace Mr. Saseendran in the Cabinet, stating that NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar had made the call. His public statement has breathed new life into what appeared to be a long-running campaign in the “infighting-riven” NCP-SP to displace Mr. Saseendran. For the record, NCP-SP State president P.C. Chacko denied any dissension in the party.
The potential triggers to avoidable disaffection in the LDF also assumed some political import against the backdrop of the CPI(M)‘s recent decision to revitalise the coalition structure at the grassroots level to resuscitate the ruling front’s flagging electoral fortunes, which hit an alarming low in the Lok Sabha polls.
Published - September 19, 2024 06:35 pm IST
