New Delhi: The CPM is divided on how to deal with the controversies surrounding Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office, during the party's central committee (CC) meeting that is due to convene later this week.
Leaders from the state are against any lengthy, detailed discussions on the controversies, party sources said. However, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s faction wants a comprehensive examination of the developments, since they have affected the image of the government and the party.
The central committee meeting will be held online on July 25-26.
State leaders contend that only one official of the CM's office has been found to be at fault and that the Congress and the BJP are fuelling the controversy.
They have also hinted that they will appoint a party representative in the CM's office to limit the damage.
Yechury’s faction, however, feels that the controversies have raised questions about the party’s stance on corruption.
During the Vajpayee government, the CPM had demanded the resignation of the then finance minister Yashwant Sinha for the 2001 stock market scam. The party had then pointed out that there was a lack of vigilance at the finance minister's office, it said.
The party has been demanding that the definition of corruption in the Prevention of Corruption Act should be expanded to include nepotism. It has believed that deliberately giving undue benefit to any individual or institution is also corruption. The party’s stance has also been that any contract signed without following laid-out guidelines should be investigated by the Lokpal.
The Yechury faction said that the CPM had demanded the removal of Manmohan Singh as the prime minister during the 2G scam even though the Congress had claimed that the then telecom minister A Raja had misguided the PM, hinting that Pinarayi has to be held accountable for the controversies even though he may not be responsible for them.
The chief minister’s office came under a cloud after suspended bureaucrat and former IT secretary M Sivasankar was found to have used his influence to get Swapna Suresh, one of the four main accused on the Trivandrum Airport gold smuggling case, appointed in Space Park, an initiative of the Kerala IT Department.
Sivasankar, who was also the chief minister’s principal secretary, was removed from both the posts after his alleged link to the accused in the smuggling gang emerged.
The state government has also been facing attack from the Opposition for the manner in which it appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as the consultant for the e-mobility project. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged corruption in the appointment and said the chief minister had selected the firm without any competitive bidding. It is now learnt that the state government had decided not to sign the contract with PwC for the deal.
The Yechury camp has pointed out that PwC is a firm against whom Left parties, led by the CPM itself, had raised several allegations in the past.
