People's Democracy

KERALA

UDF's Initial Signals: Bent On Undoing LDF's Good Work

WE have been earnestly watching to learn the way in which the UDF is going to govern the state of Kerala after it regained power. They have begun it by manhandling and fatally assaulting the LDF workers in general and the CPI(M) workers in particular. We did not expect a decent and humane approach on their part. After all they had managed to win the elections by manipulating and joining hands with all anti-people forces, communal splinter groups, caste configurations and even terrorist outfits. This victory is described by each section, which helped the UDF, as its victory. For example the PDP claims that it is a vote for the unconditional release of Abdul Nazar Maadani from the Tamil Nadu prison.

Apart from such claims, we are here concerned about the policies of the UDF government. So far, the chief minister and his colleagues were tight lipped regarding the policies. But gradually through the words escaping the tight lips of the ministers, a picture of the policies they are going to implement is emerging to the fore. The new KPCC chief K Muraleedharan has categorically stated that the People’s Plan Programme will certainly be revised to suit the UDF (read Congress views). The chief minister A K Antony also has pointed out that the Expert Committees set up to guide the People's Plan Programme will be abolished immediately. This means that the plan fund will be open for squandering by the UDF interests. As is known the People’s Plan Programme is the first of its kind that was initiated by the LDF government and it has become part of history as one of it's most important achievements. It has been acclaimed by many in different parts of the world. Digvijay Singh, the Congress chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, has praised it as most conducive to people’s welfare. We fail to understand how such a programme could be implemented without proper guidance and suggestions by the experts in different fields.

The innovation in this programme is that the panchayats are given the right and authority to make projects and spend money on them directly. The money is not from the own fund of the panchayats or the government grants but from the Plan fund that is allotted to the panchayats under the People's Plan Programme. This was done to hasten the pace of development and to avoid the drain of Plan fund in the form of commissions and profits to the contractors and bribes to the Plan implementing bureaucracy. So, naturally, expert opinion is essential in the implementation of the People’s Plan Programme. Yet they are bent on undoing this Programme.

At a press briefing the chief minister has said that his first priority would be to find a solution to the so called "empty coffers" problem. He hinted at imposition of new duties and taxes to shore up the revenue. He also said that he would take the help of central government in this and see to it that existing duties and taxes are effectively collected.

Babu Divakaran, the new labour minister was telling the media that he would propose to collect additional cess from people owning more than 10 cents of land in Municipal Corporation areas. Thus we find that the cat is slowly coming out of the bag of the UDF. The UDF, instead of fighting out the issue with the central government for its anti-people globalisation and consequent import policies, will put the burden of these policies on the shoulders of the common man.

The new taxes proposal was abandoned by the LDF government in the face of people’s hardships due to the globalisation policy. The budget presented by the LDF government was, in fact, based on this objective reality. However, it is reported by certain newspapers that the Antony government is intending to revise the budget with proposals for additional burdens on the hapless people. It will be a blow to the peasants and workers and the middle class if additional taxes are levied. There has been a gradual decline in their income due to a variety of reasons, most important of which is the decline in the prices of the agricultural products due to the unscrupulous import policy of the central government.

However the Mr Clean CM has said beyond doubt that it is not his government’s policy to fight the central government. He has said this especially in the background of the central government decision to further reduce the customs duties for the import of palm oil from Malaysia. What a beneficent policy from a "clean" CM!.

The liquor barons have started burning and destroying the toddy shops and other liquor establishments run by the cooperative societies and government owned agencies. The government is rendering a silent approval to these atrocities. The ultimate aim is conspicuous. The UDF is eager to re-establish the abkari mafia in the liquor business and toddy trade. All fissiparous trends are taking shape and it will not be very late for this mafia to become the masters again in Kerala society. The employees who were suspended for attacking the CM’s office are reinstated with immediate effect. Remember, this is said to be the first file signed by the new "idealist" CM of Kerala.

The CM has claimed that he will see to it that the expenditure for governance will be reduced to the minimum. He has "proved" this by deciding to have the largest ever ministry in the history of Kerala. The last LDF Ministry had only 14 ministers, while the earlier UDF ministry had 19 ministers. The new ministry will have 20 cabinet ministers, perhaps even 21 to meet the group requirements. Now the CM claims that this jumbo ministry will not spend as much as the 14 ministers of the erstwhile LDF government had spent. It is shameful for the people of Kerala to hear such nonsense as this. After all the present CM of Kerala is not well known for his propriety or genuineness of information and knowledge. He is a leader of chances. There has been a reported claim of this present CM that his home does not possess more than two glass tumblers. The pro-UDF bourgeois press had once reported this with great euphoria. This was at a time when Antony was a member of Rajya Sabha. A member of Rajya Sabha having a wife who is in the managerial staff of a nationalised bank was said to have a home with only two glass tumblers. The media can publicise anything, but can a leader of people take pride in such nonsense? The simplicity claimed by Antony is only a self-enslavement to sycophancy of a very inferior type.

Unfortunately in the background of these juggleries, people are being deceived and the old anti-people policies of the UDF and its henchmen are being introduced in the state. People will have to be vigilant on these things. The leading partners of the UDF and the LDF have mutually opposite class interests. One stands for the exploitation of the workers and the peasants while the latter stands for extinction of this exploitation and expropriation. Remember that the setback is temporary. Therefore the LDF will have to be ready to take up people's issues and organise struggles in their cause.

Intoxicated with the unexpected victory, which was stage-managed by the unscrupulous unification of all sorts of anti-people forces and votes, the UDF has gone on an assaulting spree. Reports are pouring in from many parts of the state about unprovoked attacks by the UDF men on the one hand and the BJP men on the other against the life and properties of the CPI(M) sympathisers in particular and the LDF workers in general. Even the bourgeois press including the unqualified UDF supporting daily "Malayala Manorama" has been reporting these assaults. It has also published photographs of shops and establishments that have been destroyed by the UDF men.

Innocent people who aspired to see the pro-people LDF to ascend power in the state are forced to shed blood on account of their unselfish work for a movement whose ideology is their conviction. They did not dedicate their life and work for any selfish motive. The UDF, knowing well that these dedicated workers of LDF would gradually oppose the anti-people government, has decided and begun to implement their old tactics of intimidation. It hopes this will prevent LDF cadres from carrying out their agitations and struggles. However, the LDF, dedicated to the people's cause will not be deterred by such attacks from anti-people right reactionary forces. History stands testimony to this. Perhaps no one knows this betteer than M V Raghavan. He may tell the UDF leadership the saga of the series of murders of young cadres he organized at Koothuparamba in 1995. He is said to have complained to the Central Election Commission that the LDF workers describe him an assassin. The reply of the Commission did not come in the papers. What could the Commission reply when people call a spade a spade?

We may strike a note of caution and warning to the UDF muscle men and their leaders here. The CPI(M) and the CPI and other left and democratic forces of the state, which are not namesake communists or socialists or democrats, lead the LDF. They are the genuine inheritors of these political philosophies and ideologies. They cannot be intimidated out of their service to the people. It is better that the UDF stops sowing the seeds of disharmony among the otherwise impoverished people due to the globalisation policies of the central government. It is high time that the UDF may seek the support of the LDF to fight the central policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. However, the UDF is trying to dance to the tunes of the central government. The present industries minister of Kerala, K Kunhalikutty, has declared on May 20, that he is also aiming at selling out the "unprofitable" public sector industries. Unprofitable to whom must be answered by Kunhalikutty.