Aditi Phadnis: The discomfort chair

PLAIN POLITICS

Kerala CM Oomen Chandy

Edathu kaalille mandhu valathu kaalileku mattuka" is a Malayalam saying that, translated loosely, means "be content with shifting a swollen foot, from the right to left".

It needs a little amplification. The story goes that the mad philosopher Naranattu Bhrantan was sleeping in a graveyard when Kali and other goddesses came visiting.

Kali told the madman he could ask for a boon that she would fulfil before his imminent death. "Can you shift the day of my death "" may be advance or delay it by a day?" asked the madman.

"No, it is not within my powers to do that. Ask for something else" she said. "In that case" said the madman "my right foot is swollen with elephantitis. Transfer it to my left foot."

This piece of understated Malayali humour was cited with much shaking of heads and ironic smiles (especially by the Left parties) the day Oomen Chandy was declared successor to A K Antony as chief minister of Kerala.

The story assumes significance because so many people were repeating it. Although the Left parties are supposed to be allies of the Congress at the Centre and partners in the fight against communalism, they predicted that replacing Antony with Oomen Chandy was no solution and would not prevent the drubbing the Congress was going to get in the Assembly elections just 18 months away.

The seniormost Congressman in Kerala, K Karunakaran, who had believed one of his nominees would be appointed CM, was crestfallen but he was resolute in opposing Antony's successor. His supporters said Chandy's appointment did not mean the problems created by Antony had gone away.

When he was appointed chief minister of Kerala, A K Antony (who has a clean image but a penchant for cutting and running when the going gets tough) declared that this time he would not quit under pressure.

When he did resign, these were to be famous last words. Although ostensibly owning responsibility for the Congress's miserable performance in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala (if the Lok Sabha perfromance were to be replicated in the Assembly the Congress would lose in 120 of the 140 seats in the assembly), Antony quit because of the enormous political pressure on him from the minorities and his total incomprehension of the Congress as an organisation.

Antony's replacement took two-and-a-half years in coming. Himself from a minority community, Antony's efforts to understand and placate the majority stemmed from the threat represented by his greatest adversaries "" Karunakaran and the Left.

It also stemmed from the candid admission of his supporters that try as he might, Antony would never be able to beat Karunakaran's hold over the Hindus of Kerala.

This led Antony to go into denial about the minorities, about their demands and about how far he should go to placate them.

The Marad case is a much repeated example. As chief minister, Antony tried so hard to do right by a group of right-wing Hindus who were attacked, that the Muslims (supposedly allies of the Congress) got annoyed and launched a campaign to replace him. This incident set off the Muslim League "" which is a partner in the United Democratic Front (UDF) "" to demand that Antony must go.

The Muslim League and the Congress realised that worse would follow if Karunakaran or one of his nominees were to replace Antony, especially when the league lost Manjeri, a traditional stranglehold, to the Left. Time passed and more mistakes were committed by the Antony regime "" the Muthanga firing on tribals and the Killi incident, both examples of police high-handedness that Antony refused to correct because he believed the police should be allowed to do their job.

When the high command did decide to replace Antony, it was with a man who is believed to be an Antony clone but with the added value of experience as an organisation person.

Oomen Chandy pipped colleagues like Ramesh Chennithala and Vayalar Ravi to the post of chief minister, because in addition to his understanding of the Congress party, he enjoys the reputation of being honest and incorruptible.

Within a few hours of taking over, at least publicly, Chandy was displaying a little bit of himself and a little bit of Antony as well. Local newspapers reported how his supporters came to greet him in the chief minister's office soon after he had taken oath.

"We all came here to see you sitting in the chief minister's chair. We have been waiting to see you in this chair for several years," a supporter reportedly said.

Chandy's reaction, to go down in posterity, was: "I am not comfortable in this chair," he said, taking time to fix the revolving chair he had inherited from Antony.

Antony never asked for money in return for decisions, but his administrative performance, expecially relating to the economy, was surprisingly lacklustre.

At the Global Investors' Meet (GIM) in Kerala, Antony pledged he would get investment worth Rs 50,000 crore into the state. Around Rs 2,000 crore has flowed in so far.

During the Antony regime Kerala has lost jobs and investment. The state has seen both drought and flood.

Privatisation of education and lack of resources that has led students to commit suicide because they realised they would not be able to afford high studies has caused student unrest of the kind the state had forgotten about.

In the first set of announcements made by Chandy, he has addres sed all these problems. Because of his background as a party man "" he began life as a student politician in the 1960s, stayed in Youth Congress and was widely seen as the architect of the Congress's victory in 2001 "" he is seen as being sympathetic to demands of partymen that Antony absolutely refused to countenance.

The issue of police high-handedness is the first one Chandy has tackled, stating that the "rights of the people" would be foremost in his scheme of things.

Kerala badly needs redemption. Oomen Chandy needs time but if he becomes yet another pole of power, parallel to so many existing already, it is hard to see how the state government will have time to indulge in anything but politics.