By the afternoon of July 19, 2005, after over 24 hours of bitter 'no confidence' debate spread over three days during which mammoth corruption charges worth Rs 6000 crore were hurled, then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy stood up to reply.
One can now only speculate how CPM stalwarts V S Achuthanandan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, A K Balan, M V Jayarajan and T M Thomas Isaac would have reacted had Oommen Chandy done a Pinarayi Vijayan then.
But unlike Pinarayi, who largely ignored the opposition charges and devoted most of his nearly four-hour record-breaking reply speech to reread in full the progress report prepared by the Public Relations Department, Chandy chose to reply to each of the allegations.
The opposition would not have been satisfied but still the then Chief Minister did not shy away from detailed file-backed rebuttals. And he wrapped it all up in one-and-a-half hours.
While only three ministers in the Pinarayi Cabinet spoke during the August 24, 2020 motion of no confidence, all the 10 ministers in the Chandy cabinet against whom specific charges were raised, including K R Gouri, were ready with office files and notes to counter the charges.
In contrast, two ministers facing the most serious charges in the Pinarayi cabinet – local self government minister A C Moideen and higher education minister K T Jaleel – did not turn up for the no confidence debate on August 24.
Chandy's benami and Jaleel's Quran
Chandy responded to even seemingly wild charges. T M Jacob, for instance, introduced to the House Baju George, a person he claimed was Chandy's benami who collected funds for the Chief Minister.
Chandy said Baju was a long-time employee of Dubai Internet City with whom he got acquainted only when talks began with the DIC for the Smart City project. “I don't have a benami and I will quit politics the day I have one,” he said.
Cut to August 24, to Congress's P T Thomas interrupting Pinarayi Vijayan to allege that the GPS system of the government vehicle that transported 'Quran packets' to North Kerala on Jaleel's instructions was switched off after Thrissur. Pinarayi trashed the charge saying: “Just because members have immunity doesn't mean they can come up with nonsensical charges.”
Grenade Chandy
Though it was Kodyeri Balakrishnan who moved the no confidence motion in 2005, the gravest corruption charges were levelled mostly by CPM's M V Jayarajan and T M Jacob, who just 11 months ago was part of the A K Antony ministry and now, after having merged with K Karunakaran's Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), was part of the LDF.
Kodiyeri's introductory motion focused on administrative and policy flaws, like police high-handedness, privatisation of education and development freeze.
The 2005 no confidence motion took place in the backdrop of widespread agitation unleashed by Left youth and student wings against the self-financing policy of the UDF government. Student-police clashes had become a regular feature.
If today's opposition called Pinarayi's rule “consultancy raj”, Chandy's tenure was dubbed “grenade raj”. CPM MLA Thomas Chacko even called the Chief Minister “grenade Chandy”. Chandy said there were six types of grenades and all of them were purchased when E K Nayanar was Chief Minister.
Achuthanandan's hurt
Chandy also argued that the LDF was harming the future of poor students by pushing them into fights with the police while the wards of leaders were safely securing their future in self-financing colleges. “If you are so against self-financing colleges, why are the sons of top CPM leaders studying in such professional institutions,” he asked.
When opposition leader V S Achuthanandan made an objection, Chandy quipped: “I am sorry I hurt you.”
Mani's confusion, VS's 'tea shop' note
There was also a lightness with which Chandy took on the corruption charges. While CPM's M V Jayarajan was speaking about corruption worth Rs 26 crore at Kerala State Warehousing Corporation, the Chief Minister intervened. “In your written note, you had alleged corruption of Rs 266 crore. Which one is the right figure,” Chandy asked. “I am levelling charges of only Rs 26 crore now,” Jayarajan said.
There were innumerable corruption charges and the sums involved were hefty. But then revenue minister K M Mani found the inconsistency of the sums baffling. “M V Jayarajan said the charges were worth Rs 1152 crore. I wrote down all that you said and when I added them up it has come down to Rs 912 crore. And when the leader of opposition spoke it became Rs 6000 crore. But the figure Achuthanandan has given to the House is Rs 2416 crore. If your basic allegation is that the government had indulged in corruption of Rs 3000 crore, all of you should stick to that figure," Mani said.
Chandy, too, made fun of Achuthanandan. “You have given me a note speaking of corruption to the tune of Rs 2416 crore. But this is not even in your letter pad but in a piece of paper that looks like the small ones used in tea shops to note down the names of daily creditors,” Chandy said, holding up the paper for everyone to see. “Aren't you provided with staff and all other facilities? Can't you take this more seriously?”
Mather revelation
A major charge raised by Jayarajan was that the Chief Minister's Office had intervened to grant various exemptions to Mather Constructions, which he said was close to Chandy. “All sanctions Jayarajan referred to, except two, were issued during the previous LDF regime, when Paloli Muhammad Kutty was local self-government minister. The two others were given by the Kochi Corporation standing committee chaired by CPM leader K D Vincent,” he said.
Signboard contract
The most serious charge was levelled by T M Jacob. It was about the contract given to a person to erect gantry signboards, the giant green rectangular signboards now seen over national highway toll gates in Kochi, Thrissur and other places. “The contract has to be given only through tender, and that too to the highest bidder,” Jacob said.
His charge was that a contractor by the name Habib Rahman was given permission to erect 50 such signboards by a chief engineer without following norms. A preliminary vigilance probe found that another chief engineer had allowed Habib Rahman to erect another 310 signboards. The vigilance wanted both these officials suspended and raids to be conducted in their houses.
All this happened when A K Antony was Chief Minister, between 2001 and 2004.
“When Oommen Chandy came to power, he did not allow any action against these officers. Instead, the government asked the vigilance director to withdraw the cases,” Jacob said. He also alleged that a KPCC office-bearer based in Kochi acted as Rahman's agent.
Scam bigger than SNC-Lavalin
Jacob said the deal had caused a loss of over Rs 700 crore to the exchequer. Under the scheme, the contractor has to provide only the site. Those wanting to advertise on the signboard will offer the contractor an annual rent of Rs 7 lakh. Jacob said Rahman was given the contract for 30 years. So for installing signboards in 360 sites, Jacob said Habib would receive Rs 735 crore. He called it a scam bigger than palmolein or SNC-Lavalin.
Chandy said the contract was given on the basis of an LDF circular that said that erection of sign warning boards should be done with public participation and sponsorship. “It said there is no need to spend any money from the budget for this purpose. It was on the basis of this circular that these officials acted,” Chandy said. P J Joseph, who as PWD minister in the previous LDF ministry issued the circular, was also present.
Chandy also said he was of the firm belief that vigilance inquiry should be initiated only if there is a loss of government money, corruption or favouritism. "For procedural lapses, there is a departmental inquiry," Chandy said.
He ridiculed the giant corruption tag attached to the deal. “If it was so lucrative, why do you think there were takers for only 26 of the 360 signboard contracts on offer,” he asked. Chandy, however, did not specify why all the contracts were given to Rahman.
Pinarayi's ghost
Then, Pinarayi Vijayan was not in the Assembly, he was CPM state secretary. Yet, it was he who dominated the session. The no confidence motion was against the Chandy government but the UDF had used the SNC-Lavalin case to put the opposition on the defensive.
More time was spent on discussing SNC-Lavalin and Malabar Cancer Centre than on any other charges against the ruling party. Thomas Isaac, for instance, used all his allotted 25 minutes and more only to defend Pinaray's SNC-Lavalin deal.
The ruling benches also sought to exploit the crucial differences in Achuthanandan's and the CPM official faction's stand in the Lavalin deal. “I don't know why Isaac is so angry when we speak of Lavalin,” power minister Aryadan Muhammad said. “We are totally with Achuthanandan when he said that SNC-Lavalin had cheated Kerala,” he added.
