V S Achuthanandan, the octogenarian chief minister of Kerala, tells Joe C Mathew that history won’t be repeated during this election.
Kerala has historically favoured a change of regime every five years. Why do you feel voters will opt for a second term for the LDF government?
The history of Kerala elections from 1977 onwards to 2006 is going to change. The pattern of elections, which swayed Left and Right every five years, will end because of the historic achievements we have made in the areas of welfare, development, and law and order. For the first time in 50 years, there is no anti-incumbency wave. Even they (Congress) have agreed that it is a tight fight.
Congress is projecting the pre-poll surveys as an indication of a wave in its favour. Party chief Sonia Gandhi in her political campaigns talked about the slow pace of implementation of welfare programmes by the state government. How do you respond to this?
Sonia is presiding over a corruption-ridden government headed by Manmohan Singh. She is making baseless allegations against the performance of the LDF. During the last five years, this government has bagged 12 prestigious national awards for good governance. Our interventions in energy conservation and health care have been recognised by the same central government that she controls. Palakkad district (which includes the Assembly constituency which Achuthanandan represents) has become the first district in the country to have electricity supplies in all its households. Of the 140 Assembly constituencies, 100 have already achieved this status and the rest are to follow. We have achieved this by giving 2.1 million extra domestic connections in the last five years.
This has been achieved despite a 50 per cent cut in the supply of electricity from the central pool and without increasing the tariff, which continues to be the lowest in the country. But the pace has been slow.
We are going ahead with plans to ensure every family owns a house in the state. Around 500,000 have already been constructed. Drinking water projects have also been successfully commissioned. Finally, we are also providing rice at a subsidised price of Rs 2 a kg. Over 4 million families are its beneficiaries today.
One of the key election promises of the Opposition is to introduce a comprehensive health care system. Was it an ignored segment during your tenure?
The Congress-led government at the Centre is learning from our experience in universal health care. We have been a model state in implementing the central health insurance scheme. While the central government scheme is meant for just the BPL (below-poverty line) families, we extended it to 4 million families. There are special health care schemes that take care of children below 18 years. We are on the path towards creating a truly welfare state.
The success of the rural employment guarantee scheme and waiver of agricultural loans has been projected as an achievement by both the fronts. How do you see this, given that both were schemes of the Centre?
Someone should correct the Congress chief when she says that Kerala continues to witness farmer suicides. There have been no debt-related suicides in Kerala during our rule. It was common before we came to power in 2006, but we put an end to it through welfare measures. It includes central schemes, but if the government at the Centre and the Congress feel the credit should go to them, then they should check if farmer suicides have come to an end in the Congress-ruled states such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
You seem to be the biggest crowd puller during this election. Is it just your charisma or the LDF has something more to bank on?
I have almost completed my campaign tours across Kerala. This enthusiasm among people is visible everywhere. It is an expression of people’s support to the LDF. The credit goes to the CPI-M and the front it leads.
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The main election plank on which people voted you to power in 2006 was your promise to bring to book anti-social and corrupt elements that are part of the ruling elite. You seem to be just half way in fulfilling that promise. Don’t you think five years is a long time people have given you to do it?
The fight against corruption and societal evils cannot be finished within a deadline. It has to be a continuous and patient effort. For instance, my fight against corruption in the Idamalayar dam case (against former electricity minister R Balakrishna Pillai) began 22 years ago. The legal battle had several phases, some against us, some in favour. If I had felt impatient in this process, it could have never reached its logical conclusion (a Supreme Court verdict sentencing Balakrishna Pillai to imprisonment). So, we will continue our efforts with patience. Truth will prevail.
Smart City was the previous government’s baby. It could have gone through five years ago itself. After a delay of five years, you recently gave sanctions for the project. How do you explain this delay?
It is not correct to say there has been a five-year delay. It is a special economic zone and it needed a lot of sanctions and approvals from the central government also, even if it had been cleared on the first day of the LDF taking charge. Further, if you see the previous government’s vision statement, they were expecting the project to result in additional job creation for 5,000 people by 2011. Going by that logic, we have already created 17,000 jobs from the project. It is true that Smart City is yet to take off, but the Info Park, that is part of the Smart City project, has already generated thrice the number of jobs that was envisaged by the Congress-led government. Further, the delay has ensured that we have a better deal, with the rights to use the ‘Info Park’ brand remaining with us. If the software export revenues from Info Park was Rs 330 crore in 2006, it is over Rs 3,400 crore today. Five years from now, Info-Park and Smart City project will generate Rs 10,000 crore worth of export earnings.
