The Left Democratic Front (LDF) has been embarrassed by two back-to-back developments this week though pre-poll surveys boost its morale.
The ruling front is on the defensive after documents made public exposed its claims on deep-sea fishing deal with the American company EMCC. Also, the Crime Branch gave a clean chit to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was probed for charges of sexual harassment levelled against him by a key accused in the solar panel scam.
Documents received through a Right to Information Act revealed that the Chief Minister's Office was privy to the deal between Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) and the EMCC. The deal, incidentally, was in conflict with the Left's policy on fisheries and the Front's 2016 election manifesto.
Attempts to make KSINC Managing Director Prasanth N a scapegoat for inking the deal, too, fell flat after the latest revelation. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma had been blaming Prasanth for the deal, which they claimed was signed without the government's nod.
Documents, however, presented a different picture. It revealed that a senior member of the CMO and department head had congratulated Prasanth for clinching the deal.
Prasanth, in an apparent bid to save his skin, had shared the details of his communication with the CMO and Additional Chief Secretary T K Jose, who investigated the issue. Prasanth was under a cloud of doubt since he was the private secretary to Ramesh Chennithala when the latter held the Home portfolio in the Oommen Chandy-led cabinet.
Chief Minister's observation that "Prasanth has ulterior motives" on Thursday indicated that the Left is still suspecting the bureaucrat for his proximity to the Opposition Leader.
The government's stand has become a topic of discussion in official circles, since it has not spoken against M Sivashankar, also an IAS officer, who had undergone imprisonment in the gold smuggling case.
No probe has been ordered into the initial Memorandum of Understanding on the deep-sea fishing signed between the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation and the EMCC. The KSINC-EMCC deal to build trawlers was a follow-up of the initial MoU.
Why CBI?
When the documents on the deep-sea fishing deal that Additional Chief Secretary T K Jose received during his probe punched holes in the government's claim on the issue, a status report the same official had sent to the central government revealed that no evidence was found in the case of harassment against Oommen Chandy.
The Crime Branch report was handed to the central government when the state handed over the probe to the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI).
It begs the question, why did the state government hand the case over to the CBI, despite its Crime Branch reporting that no evidence has been found to substantiate the charge against Chandy?
It is well-known that in cases of harassment, investigators begin the probe by checking whether the complainant and the accused were together at the scene of the alleged crime at the same time. Notably, Chandy had not opted for legal recourse during the two-and-a-half-years of the Crime Branch probe.
In the coming days, the opposition will accuse the government of siding with and providing political support to a move meant to personally taint a former chief minister.
The left irks coastal voters
Meanwhile, the revelation on the deep-sea fishing deal row may become a liability for the LDF in coastal areas. The Chief Minister's response to the Bishop of Kollam objecting to the issue of a pastoral letter against the government has provoked many. The response of the coastal population, and those groups and organizations supporting them was an emotional one. The new revelations came at a time when the LDF was trying to wriggle out of the situation by blaming the bureaucracy.
