People's Democracy

AS the state assembly elections in Kerala are fast approaching, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has successfully held its conventions in all the 140 constituencies. Election committees have been formed and their office bearers elected. The list of candidates has been declared, with some independent candidates. LDF leaders have approached the people as one man to explain the programme and plan of the election. They also had to tell the people why most of the media are against the LDF. Its achievements are being explained. It has freed Kerala from the tentacles of communal clashes, from lock-up assaults and deaths, from police firing and atrocities against the people. It has proved that people can have the basic amenities of life sanctioned by their own local bodies. The government has been able to complete its full term, in spite of the stiff opposition from the Congress-led UDF. The UDF, time and again, harped on the theme of LDF’s corruption without mentioning how and where and even without ever moving a vote of no-confidence or without ever bringing their complaints before the Lokayukta.

On the other hand, the sorrowful plight of the UDF parties became clear when they failed to finalise their candidates even by April 10. K Karunakaran did murmur something when her daughter was not accommodated in the list of candidates for 88 seats allotted to the Congress. There are a number of UDF rebels in the fray. Groups were active, from the state to the booth level, on the question of who should be the office bearers of their election committees.

However, this does not rule out the possibility of a last-minute political conglomeration to win the elections, particularly because their share of votes has considerably gone down during the last five years. That is why despair has overtaken them and they can go to any extent, as they know it is their last chance.

This does not rule out a political understanding with the BJP either. It is an obvious choice before them. Already they have set a precedent in the last local body elections in Kerala and earlier in Beypore and Badagara.

They also earnestly want to be in company with the PDP of Abdul Nazar Madani who is in jail for the last three years for his alleged involvement in the Al-Umma conspiracy that led to the Coimbatore riots. Madani is desperately trying to get released from prison, and for this he requires the BJP’s help to persuade the DMK government of Tamil Nadu to release him. Here the UDF’s role is to pimp between the PDP and the BJP, to forge an indirect understanding by which PDP votes are polled for BJP candidates and Madani is released from prison.

In the third place, the UDF is out to resort to a maligning campaign by spreading all sorts of canards against the LDF and especially against its leading partner, the CPI(M).

Murderous assaults against the CPI(M) leaders and cadres are also likely. They assaulted P Jayarajan at the time of the Lok Sabha polls, on the Onam festival day; if he survived, it was only because the assailants took him for dead. Jayarajan is a candidate in the coming elections, with a torn-up right hand with fingers stitched on it. The UDF men also tried to instigate violence and riots at Nadapuram. They have in their pay killers of the worst varieties, from the Sangh Parivar and from the underworld.

All this explains why the Congress has so far refrained from running a vigorous nationwide campaign against the BJP-NDA’s rampant corruption that was revealed by the Tehelka.com.

Thus, in desperation, the UDF may resort to the following measures:

1. Get financial and other assistance from imperialist powers.

2. Forge an alliance with the BJP.

3. Forge an alliance with the PDP.

4. Forge an overt and covert understanding with dubious elements in Kerala society.

5. Appease the caste elements.

6. Organise violence and provoke the LDF workers into it.

7. Organise riots to fish in the troubled waters.

The question is: What will be the option before LDF workers? The answer is clear: to stand united, go to the people, help them understand what is what, explain to them the evil designs of the UDF, tell them what happened in the past, tell them what the LDF has achieved for them, instruct them what the LDF manifesto says, warn them about the danger of communalism and fascism and, above all, to always avoid falling prey to provocations.