Kerala’s Left Democratic Front [LDF] now opens a different war path in order to ousting chief minister Oommen Chandy, against his alleged involvement in Solar Power scam. On Monday a high level meeting of the front has decided to block, Cliff House, the official residence of the chief minister indefinitely from 9th December onwards. Vaikam Vishwan, convenor of the Front said that the blockade would continue till the chief minister announces his resignation.
The decision is so important as the Front’s earlier move to block the secretariat indefinitely in August had failed miserably. The indefinite blockade of the secretariat was called off in just 24 hours as the top leadership of the Front had realized the practical difficulties in managing such a huge crowd, Around 50,000 workers has assembled on the MG Road, the main road of Thiruvananthapuram on 12th August and the city was literally stalled.
The police had kept cool even though there were scuffles in some places of the city. The leaders had realized that managing such a crowd for days together will make the city life very tough and the people of Thiruvananthapuram city had started expressing their difficulties. The agitation was for the resignation of Oommen Chandy and for announcing judicial enquiry into the Solar scam.
On the very next day of the blockade Chandy announced judicial enquiry and LDF withdrew the strike immediately after the announcement, saving their political face. The local media even reported that the withdrawal was a drama as there was secret understanding between the some of the top leaders of LDF and the ruling United Democratic Front [UDF]. A section of the media reported that Pinarayi Vijayan, secretary of the state unit of CPI[M] had telephonic conversation with the Home minister, Thiruvanachoor Radhakrishan which lead to the withdrawal of the blockade. This created humiliation to the Left Front. But they boasted that the agitation was a success as the chief minister was forced to announce a judicial enquiry. Yet the Left Front decision is still not properly digested in Kerala political circles.
Though Chnady announced judicial enquiry, the Kerala High Court rejected the plea of the government to provide the service of a sitting judge of the High court for conducting the enquiry. Though the government approached twice for the purpose the High Court is adamant. So the judicial enquiry is likely to be a mockery. Moreover, the chief minister and his Office are not included in the terms of references of the enquiry. The main allegation in the case was against the chief minister and some members of his personal staff. LDF has not accepted the terms of references announced by the government.
In the light of this LDF now adopts blockade of the official residence of the chief minister. The Front will organized two state wide campaign rallies during 1-13 of November in order to mobilize public support. But the people believe that this is a desperate bid to keep the 'solar scam' alive till the Parliament elections. Even LDF clearly plays a political game out of this in order to maintain an anti- government movement till the elections.
