Thiruvananthapuram: As a symbolic gesture, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala sharing the stage with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was a big boost to the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The LDF and UDF coming together gave the anti-CAA protests the force of a movement.
But inside the Congress, there seems to be an unsettling feeling that this was a tactical blunder. It was like handing over the leadership of the battle to Pinarayi Vijayan.
And the timing was also bad; the Assembly elections are just a year and a quarter away. The UDF partners like the RSP boycotted the joint protest. "By playing a supporting role in a protest led by Pinarayi Vijayan we are only valorising him. It is not the UDF's job to make Pinarayi look unnecessarily heroic," a top RSP leader said. "We should not have taken part in a protest led by the CPM," Congress working president Kodikkunnil Suresh said.
The Congress and the UDF just cannot allow Pinarayi Vijayan to fan the impression that he is the right man to protect minority interests, the first rustle of which was heard the moment he refused to implement CAA in Kerala.
There is a feeling within the Congress that it will have to move quickly to vacuum out the perception before it grows into a political storm that can blow it away in the assembly elections.
Congress leaders, cutting across group equations, say there was no need for Chennithala to act so gracious. "The Congress had called for a broad coalition of secular forces to take on the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The plan was scuttled by none other than the CPM in Kerala. How can we share a stage with them, even if it is to protest something as ugly and unconstitutional as CAA," a top leader said.
The absence of KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran at the joint protest on December 16 was a clear indication that opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala did not have the backing of his party. Chennithala had explained to his party that his decision to participate in the joint protest was similar to a unanimous resolution passed in the Assembly on issues of common interest.
On December 18, Mullappally came out with a strong statement saying the Congress was not ready to take up any joint political struggle with the Left Democratic Front. Some Congress leaders saw this as a censure for Chennithala.
"Congress is the only party that has been strongly opposing fascist forces at the national level," he said. "All this while the CPM in Kerala was running away from the battles the Congress was waging against the fascists," he added.
Mullappally made it clear why the Congress should not hold hands with Pinarayi Vijayan. "It were Politburo and the Central Committee members led by the Chief Minister who destroyed the democratic and secular platform created before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls," he said.
And then he hinted why the Congress should not fall prey to the CPM's games. "The CPM's love for minorities is nothing but a sham. Their leader Sitaram Yechury had spoken so much against the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) but the CPM in Kerala has used the law to arrest two Muslim youths. The government or the CPM have still not told why these two boys have been incarcerated," he said.
Mullappally also accused the CPM of practising "soft hindutva". "The most recent example of this are the utterances of some of the Chief Minister's close associates that Muslim fundamentalism was growing in Malabar," he said.
The Congress knows what is of immediate significance if it has to make a comeback in Kerala. Re-demonise Pinarayi Vijayan. The recent by-elections proved he will not be punished twice for what happened in Sabarimala.
