CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has finally come up with a straight answer to the big question. He said the party-led Left Democratic Front did not intend to reopen the bars closed by the Congress-led government. The CPM state leadership does not seem to be so sure about it though.
State leaders have so far skirted the issue even as they criticised the United Democratic Front government’s liquor policy and reiterated that Prohibition was not the answer.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had challenged the CPM to reveal its plan for the bars closed by the UDF government. Speaking at a mammoth party meeting on the Sankhumugham beach in Thiruvananthapuram to mark the conclusion of Congress state president V M Sudheeran’s prepoll roadshow, Gandhi asked the LDF if it planned to reopen about 700 bars.
A few day’s later, speaking at the CPM’s own roadshow on the same venue, Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan ridiculed Gandhi in his characteristic style but a straight answer was not forthcoming.
Why did Gandhi came all the way from Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram to ask this when he could have just dialed CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Achuthanandan asked. However, Gandhi got the answer from Delhi itself. The day Yechury made his comment against the bars, Achuthanandan followed up in Kerala by saying that it was a mere propaganda that the LDF plans to reopen those bars.
The party’s central leadership has tried to clear the air on a key issue. The party had given lengthy analyses critical of the UDF’s liquor policy but it was the first time that a leader came up with an assurance that the bars will not be reopened. In fact, the state leaders’ statement had given an impression that the bars would be back in business if the LDF comes to power in the state.
Yechury’s straight talk rubbishes any such speculation. He has put to rest the allegations by the UDF that the LDF had a covert understanding with the bar owners who took a hit under the Oommen Chandy government.
However, Yechury’s assurance on the bars is an endorsement of the UDF government’s liquor policy at a time when the the CPM in Kerala is struggling to find a viable position on the matter.
Though the party supported the closure of the bars initially, it mounted criticism that the decision was ineffective. Leaders of the CPM and the CPI cited data to establish that the government move has not reduced the consumption of liquor in the state.
CPM leaders called the government decision irrational and impractical. Now, the party general secretary says the decision would not be tinkered with. The state leaders may find it difficult to toe the line.
Congress leaders explain the bar closure as the first step on a road to Prohibition. Abstinence, not Prohibition, is the way forward, CPM counters.
How could a government form a policy on a personal decision like abstinence, the Congress wants to know as the issue takes centre stage in the first phase of campaign for the assembly election on May 16.
Yechury has made his position clear. The bars would stay under lock and key. Now the ball is in the party’s state leadership. All eyes turn to the LDF manifesto expected on April 21.
