THE cleavage in the UDF is deepening with the government of Kerala filing an affidavit confirming the crimes of the former minster Balakrishna Pillai, who was indicted and found guilty by the judicial courts. Pillai, who is also the chairman of the Kerala Congress(B) group is all set to launch a war against the UDF as the government has confirmed his crimes in its affidavit. The same shameless UDF had earlier questioned the authenticity of the LDF charges against Pillai and put him up as a candidate in the last election. However after the election, he was denied a ministerial berth and his son was installed in his place. Pillai is knitting new pressure tactics to escape the judicial punishments against him. It is known from reliable sources that he might even withdraw his son from the cabinet. However, it depends on the son whether he would quit the cabinet in favour of his corrupt father.

According to Pillai, the affidavit was filed in the court without the knowledge of the Advocate General. He claims that the pleader’s affidavit is against the interest of the government and therefore it is illegal. The decision of the lower court to imprison Pillai for one year was ratified by the Apex Court of the country and Pillai had to spend a few days behind prison bars before he filed an appeal before the Supreme court. The Court had found that there was no ministerial decision to sell electricity to the Graphite company of Karnataka. But the details regarding the corruption and the decision by the cabinet is going to be exposed soon, says Pillai.

After he was denied berth in the cabinet, Pillai has not been attending the UDF meetings. Pillai is now engaged in a verbal campaign against Antony government, though for his own personal reasons. He is not criticising the government for its anti-people policies. Any how the cleavage in the UDF is widening on several issues, one among them being the Pillai issue. Further the government will be forced to issue similar affidavits in the cases regarding even present ministers.

K Sudhakaran, the UDF minister for forests, who is an accused in the attempt to murder of Jayarajan, the CPI(M) secretary of Kannur district is once gain in the dock following a ruling of the Kerala High court. It has ruled that the district sessions court of Thiruvananthapuram shall again examine the case of filing false affidavit by K Sudhakaran, to decide whether he must face prosecution for the offence or not. This decision came following an appeal moved by the LDF government over the decision of the district judge to the effect that the proceedings against Sudhakaran need not be continued in the case of allegation of filing a false affidavit. The High Court has, in its recent judgement, severely criticized this decision of the district judge and asked for reopening the case.

The original case relates to the attempt of firing at Jayarajan, the CPI(M) secretary of Kannur district. He was shot while travelling in a train in Andhra Pradesh. Sudhakaran who was the District Congress Committee president of Kannur, was one of the accused in this case and he has submitted an affidavit to the Court saying that he was in full knowledge of the conditions of his bail granted by the Andhra High Court. This was later proved to be false and hence the present case. The High Court ruling has now raised a new question of legal and political morality in the continuance of a person as minister who has been indirectly adjudged as having filed a false affidavit at a court and as it has again confirmed his position as an accused in a case of attempted murder of a political party leader.

V S Achthanandan, leader of opposition in Kerala and member of CPI(M) Polit Bureau, voiced strong protest over the Kerala government’s decision to pay the airfare of Rs 30 lakh for the special air-dash to Thiruvanthapuram from Delhi made by A K Antony six years ago to take oath of office as chief minister.

He had arrived then by a special plane of the defense department for which he was billed Rs 14.69 lakh. However as the Congress (I) did not pay these dues, with interest and fines the amount has now become Rs 30 lakh.

Antony who has now once again become the chief minister has decided to pay these dues from the depleted exchequer of the state government.

K R RADHAKRISHNAN, MBBS final year student of Alapuzha Medical College, was elected as the student representative to the syndicate of Kerala university. Radhakrishnan, candidate of SFI, won the seat with 59 votes out of 102 votes polled in the election. SFI today held demonstrations in the campuses of the city, celebrating the election results.

SFI has also won all the general seats of Mahatma Gandhi university of Kottayam, getting 106 votes out of 152 polled. SFI also got ten seats in the executive committee and four seats in the accounts committee of the student union.

THE Congress (I) led UDF government in Kerala has decided to revive the district rural development agency and to leave them to be managed entirely by the officers. DRDA’s were disbanded by the previous LDF government and were merged with the duties and funds of the popularly elected district panchayats, as part of the new people’s development campaign. They have now been revived and entrusted with committees consisting solely of officials. This is intended for managing local governance through ‘back seat driving’ of the ruling politicians. The decision also proves the allergy of Congress (I) towards the policy of entrusting local bodies with responsibility and funds for local development, under the centrally sponsored schemes.

MEMBERS of Parliament from Kerala belonging to LDF have participated in the meeting of MPs convened by the chief minister. This was in sharp contrast to what the UDF had done on such occassions while it was in opposition. The Congress (I) led UDF MPs had been quite non-co-operative with the LDF government during the last five years often boycotting and walking out of such meetings. The comment of an MP from Muslim League on the opportunity of utilising the highy useful meetings of all the MPs from the state was taken up by the LDF MPs to strongly expose and criticize the UDF for their non cooperation during the rule of LDF. The conference listed the issues to be taken up in the parliament and with the central government.

‘DESHABHIMANI’ daily, the official organ of CPI(M) in Kerala, began a series of investigative reports on import of palm oil from Malayasia. The palm oil import has increased greatly since the Vajpayee government assumed power. India is continuing to be the largest importer of palm oil for the second consecutive year. In 1991, the import of palm oil was 1,91,717 tonnes, which formed 2.48 per cent of the total exports of Malayasia. This was increased in the year 2000, to five lakh tonnes and 25.4 per cent of exports of Malaysia. This was more than China and Europe.

This abnormal import of palm oil, apart from the corruption and commission involved, has reduced the price of all kinds of edible oils and oil - seeds of national production, creating an additional burden to the already existing crisis in the agricultural sector. This situation is going to worsen further because of the estimated import of forty lakh tonnes of palm oil in the current year.

DYFI state committee has announced its decision to hold ‘patriotic marches’ at all district centres on the next Independence Day with the slogan of "Beware of Global Conspiracy, Onto Another Freedom struggle". DYFI requested all the people to co-operate with the programme in view of devastating policy of mortgaging the nation to the imperialists and adoption of policies at the altar of our independence and sovereignty by the ruling class and government.