Crisis in Kerala

Crisis in Kerala

FPJ BureauUpdated: Thursday, May 30, 2019, 12:37 PM IST
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The myth that the best thing that ever happened to Kerala was the tripartite coalition Government has at long last been debunked by the very man who fostered it.

The Deputy CM and leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Shri R. Sanker’s admission that at the Cabinet level the Congress and the PSP were not hitting it off too well is also an admission of failure of the coalition.

At first glance it would appear that the Congress Ministers in the Kerala Cabinet are piqued by the overbearing attitude of the PSP CM, Shri Pattom Thanu Pillai who has issued an ukase that all the files of all the ministries must be sent up to him.

The most charitable interpretation that may be read into it is that the CM has taken upon himself the task of co-ordinating the function of all the ministries. To that extent the CM is entitled to call for files of individual ministries. But the sweeping nature of the ukase shows that it is more than co-ordination that Shri Pillai is aiming at.

 The fact is that all the ministries have become dispensers of patronage and there is a regular competition between the Congress and PSP Ministers to gear the departments under them into enhancing the power of their respective parties.

The Deputy CM’s demand that the Education portfolio, which Shri Pillai annexed after Shri Ummer Koya went on leave, should be given to a Congressman is but another aspect of the rivalry between the two major parties in the coalition. Shri R. Sanker’s open indictment of the PSP Ministers would perhaps be welcomed by the anti-alliance group in the State Congress which is headed by a Congress Minister and an ex-Minister.

With the rifts and rivalries between the coalescing parties coming to the surface in less than a year after the formation of the Government, the anti-Communist platform has lost much of its appeal. The Congress would therefore be well advised not to put too much of a premium on saving the coalition and keeping up appearances, but to concentrate rather on lightening the Pradesh Congress which is a house divided.

February 2, 1961

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