People's Democracy

THE Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) did not observe the all-India protest programme to demand the resignation of the Vajpayee government after the revelations about corruption made by Tehelka.com website. The call for protest through processions, rallies, protest meetings and dharnas, etc, in all parts of the country, was given by the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

But the KPCC did not give any directive to its district and block level committees to the effect. Nowhere in the state did the Congress Committees organise any protest programme. "The Congress is not doing anything, may be the Youth Congress will do something" was the reply received from the Thiruvananthapuram DCC office when the correspondents of various papers contacted them. The reaction from the Kozhikode DCC was that "there is still time for these things."

The call given at the AICC’s Bangalore session was to be ready for any action till the Vajpayee government resigned owning the responsibility of leaking out defence secrets. But the Kerala unit of the Congress(I) did not want to antagonise the BJP just for the sake of national defence. The Kerala Congress(I) leaders like A K Antony and K Karunakaran did not open their mouths to utter a single word against the central BJP-NDA leaders who are sinking in corruption. The reason was simple. The KPCC desires to forge a covert or overt understanding with the BJP. Hence its silence.

In fact, the two parties --- the Congress and the BJP --- have been behaving like ostriches who cover their heads in the sand and believe that the storm will pass. Whenever an UDF-BJP alliance is alleged, the Congress leadership habitually asks: "How can the Congress, a natural enemy of the BJP in national politics enter into such an alliance?" The question still remains unanswered by the Congress leaders.

It is an established fact that the UDF won the 1991 elections with tacit support from the BJP. Even late K G Marar, the godfather of Kerala BJP, had admitted it in his autobiography. The UDF-BJP leaders are trying to re-establish the alliance of the 1990s to defeat the LDF. We do not know what price the Congress will have to pay for acting against national unity and deceiving the secular forces of the country. However, one thing is sure: the Congress will lose its secular credentials once it joins the company of the communal, fascist forces, that is the BJP.