Malappuram PR controversy: Why CM triumphed and UDF has egg on its face

The UDF's hyper aggressive response to a personal slight has allowed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to walk away with the honours on the first functional day of the 12th Session of the Kerala Assembly on Monday.

The UDF, and especially the Congress party, seemed so inflamed by the Chief Minister's 'substandard' remark against Opposition Leader VD Satheesan that it lost sight of its primary mission to serve the Chief Minister a double blow: establish him as both anti-Muslim and an inveterate peddler of untruths.

It was with this specific intention, to expose the absurdity of the Chief Minister's assertions, that the UDF had chosen as its first topic for adjournment motion this session the fallout of the CM's alleged reference to Malappuram in an interview given to a national daily.

In the interview, the CM is quoted as saying that "150 kg of gold and hawala money worth Rs 123 crore were seized by the state police in the last five years from Malappuram district". It was also said that the money was entering Kerala for "anti-state" and "anti-national" activities".

Malappuram being a Muslim-majority district, the charge was that the CM had unnecessarily criminalised an entire community. It was also stated that if the numbers were high for Malappuram, it was only because the Karipur airport, from where the police nabbed gold smugglers and hawala operators, fell within the Malappuram district and not because the accused were from Malappuram.

The CM had denied that he had said anything about Malappuram to the national daily. The daily, on its part, confirmed the CM's rebuttal but left him far more vulnerable. It clarified that the portion about Malappuram was added at the behest of a PR agency.

So Congress's Peravur MLA Sunny Joseph, who was supposed to move the adjournment motion, had arrived in the Assembly with an arsenal of posers.

One, if the CM says that the national daily has done an honourable thing by correcting, why was the CM unwilling to acknowledge the very same daily's assertion that a PR agency was involved? Two, even if, for argument's sake, it is conceded that the CM had not mentioned Malappuram in his interview, can he deny that he himself had trotted out the same crime figures about Malappuram in a press conference he had held before the interview? Three, if no PR agencies were involved how did press briefings with the exact figures reach the offices of national dailies even a week before the CM gave the interview? Four, can a stranger walk into a room where the CM is being interviewed without his office checking the person's background? Five, why has the government still not interrogated the PR agency that had allegedly inserted words into the CM's mouth?

The Chief Minister, in quite a bold and surprising move, even allowed a discussion on the issue. Still, Sunny Joseph could not hurl even one of these questions at the CM.

Reason: the UDF was busy getting worked up by what they called a "nasty" comment made by the CM against the Opposition Leader. Earlier in the day, after the Opposition Leader walked out during the Question Hour in protest against the Speaker's decision to downgrade 49 questions submitted by the UDF members, the CM had mocked at Satheesan. "He has often demonstrated that he was an opposition leader of inferior quality," the CM said. The CM was echoing Parliamentary Affairs Minister M B Rajesh's remark that Satheesan would go down in history as the most substandard opposition leader in the history of Kerala.

When he returned to the House, Satheesan seemed bothered only about the insult meted out to him. he returned the compliment, called the CM both "corrupt" and "substandard".

Some of the Congress MLAs made such a show of their outrage that they even tried to push their way through the Watch and ward staff protecting the Speaker and even attempted to jump the wooden rails that skirted the Speaker's podium. Never before in the last decade has UDF MLAs shown such physical aggression.

This sustained aggression left the Speaker with no choice but to abruptly end the day's proceedings. The CM, who has yet to offer a convincing reply on the PR issue, was let off lightly. It will be difficult for the UDF to raise the issue again in the Assembly. The CPM, too, can convincingly argue that the UDF had shamelessly backed off from a fight on the issue.

Now with egg on their faces, the Congress leadership in the Assembly is trying to put a spin on the day's proceedings. A top source said that KPCC president K Sudhakaran had asked for an explanation.

The party is now blaming the Speaker's "arbitrary" action for their lost opportunity. Here is the explanation given by the Congress leadership in the Assembly to the KPCC: "When we were raising the issue about the CM's nasty comments against the Opposition Leader, the Speaker went ahead with the day's proceedings. Calling Attention motions were moved, then submissions were taken up. A Bill was also introduced. After the Bill was referred to the Subject Committee, the adjournment motion should have been taken up. Instead, to our surprise, the Speaker adjourned the House. It was on the basis of a note given by the CM that the Speaker took such a decision."

What Congress leaders conveniently disguise is the fact that whenever there is pandemonium it has been the practice of speakers to cut short the proceedings. The UDF's aggression suggested that they wanted an abrupt end to the day. Many UDF leaders, too, felt that the day should have been managed better.

"If we really wanted to take on the CM, we should have held back our demonstrations and waited for the discussion to pounce on the ruling benches," a senior Muslim League MLA said on the condition of anonymity.