People's Democracy

LDF’S GRAND SIEGE IN KERALA

Chandy Bows to Popular Demand, Concedes Judicial Probe

N S Sajith

AT long last, on August 13, 2013, Oommen Chandy, the Kerala chief minister, bowed down to the people’s power, gave up his autocratic stand on the solar panel scam and conceded the demand for a judicial inquiry into it. This happened after the pressure mounted by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) which laid an indefinite siege on the state secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram on August 12. While announcing the withdrawal of the siege, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan warned that the struggle to demand Oommen Chandy’s resignation would continue.

The LDF had announced that four gates of the state secretariat would be picketed indefinitely till Oommen Chandy resigned.

While welcoming the announcement of a judicial probe, Pinarayi said whenever a judicial enquiry is ordered with a chief minister in its ambit of probe, the incumbent always resigns. Now, if Oommen Chandy refuses to do so, the LDF would continue boycotting him and greet him with black flags wherever he goes.

The chief minister announced about having a judicial probe after a meeting of leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF). After the meeting UDF leaders adamantly said they would announce a judicial probe only if the struggle was withdrawn. However, the chief minister suddenly came to the scene and announced that a sitting High Court judge would conduct the probe. He also assured that its terms of reference would be decided with the opposition’s consent.

So far the chief minister had been refusing to have any judicial probe.

It may be noted that around a lakh people had poured into Thiruvananthapuram by the day of the indefinite picketing, openly challenging the threats and intimidation held out by the UDF government. The latter had mobilised the state and central forces on an unprecedented scale to suppress an agitation which was increasingly gathering momentum with each passing day.

That no force can stop a determined people was evident from August 11 evening itself with thousands reached Thiruvananthapuram station by every train. Thousands more joined on August 12, and August 13 saw new batches arriving from all over the state.

In fact, the numbers that had finally reached Thiruvananthapuram by using all available modes of transport for the indefinite picketing far exceeded the expectations of the organisers.

Ultimately, the government had to yield.

With the siege laid by tens of thousands of people at the LDF’s call while defying all intimidation by the UDF government, the movement to demand the chief minister’s resignation entered a new phase.

It was in the wee hours on August 12 when LDF activists started their march towards the state secretariat. The huge contingent of armed policemen could not stop the onward march of these people who had come in from various parts of the state. More than one lakh people thus gathered around the secretariat. The chief minister and his colleagues had to sneak into the secretariat building early in the morning in order to have a cabinet meeting. It was learnt that this meeting was held at 6.30 a m, well before the inauguration of the LDF picketing. The police had cordoned off the cantonment gate area and made special arrangements for the passage of the ministers and secretariat employees. 

It was learnt that after the cabinet meeting the chief minister made a sudden exit, helped by the police. Other ministers had to wait for long hours before they could move out, with heavy police escorts.

Inaugurating the picketing, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said the Congress was setting a standard of shamelessness by not accepting the responsibility for what happened right under the nose of the UDF government. Karat said Oommen Chandy must step down from office if he at all felt any accountability to the people. While there were instances of chief ministers and union ministers resigning on moral grounds earlier, the Congress party had now stooped to quite low levels in order to protect the corrupt, he said.

Referring to the Congress-led Kerala government’s move to call in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to protect the chief minister who was facing allegations of corruption, Karat quipped, "They are supposed to protect the borders in Jammu and Kashmir."

Former prime minister, H D Deve Gowda, said only an impartial probe by a judicial commission by a High Court judge could come out with the truth about the solar scam and that the chief minister should step down to make way for an impartial probe. "The government cannot move ahead with an undeclared emergency all the time in view of the people's struggle. At least Chandy should step down to come out from the tangle," Gowda said. 

CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy said Chandy could not escape his moral and political responsibility for the solar scam.

Other leaders who participated in the picketing were CPI(M) Polit Bureau members S Ramachandran Pillai, Kodyeri Balakrishnan and M A Baby, V S Achuthanandan (leader of opposition in the Kerala assembly) LDF convener Vaikom Vishwan, CPI state secretary Pannian Ravindran, CPI leaders Veliyam Bhargavan and C Divakaran, RSP general secretary T J Chandrachoodan, RSP leader N K Premachandran, NCP general secretary T P Peethambaran and Kerala Congress leader P C Thomas, among others. CPI(M) state secretary Pinaryi Vijayan presided over the inauguration of the picketing.

The government has announced that the state secretariat would remain closed for two days --- August 13 and 14. Earlier, the government had announced the closure of educational institutions for two days.

INTIMIDATION  FAILED TO WORK

As early as on August 9, the chief minister held a meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, presided over by K S Balasubramaniam, the state’s director general of police, which had decided to deploy the police force all over the capital city in order to restrict the entry of vehicles from other districts. The government was also planning to arrest the LDF leaders on the basis of false cases and to take into custody the workers by trains.

Apart from the local police, the armed forces deployed in the capital included the Kerala Armed Police, Malabar Special Police, Special Armed Force, and Rapid Action Force. No policeman was allowed to have a leave. Policemen from four adjacent districts were also deployed in the capital city. Earlier the chief minister had sought the deployment of 24 companies of central forces and Mullappali Ramachandran, the minister of state for home affairs, ensured the presence of a two thousand strong CRPF team.

Not content with deploying a large number of armed forces, moreover, the state government tried some other measures to crush the struggle. For instance, it threatened the lodge owners and bus operators against helping the LDF workers to reach the state capital and stay there. Even the public toilets were closed.

The police also blocked all the roads reaching Thiruvananthapuram. All the entry points near the secretariat were cordoned off. School and colleges were taken over by the police and converted into police camps. The police even tried to raze to the ground the makeshift pandal meant for cooking food for the picketers. However, the people successfully foiled the game of the UDF regime.

It was therefore no wonder that by August 12 morning the city had become something like a military barrack with the presence of 20 companies of CRPF personnel and thousands of state police jawans; it is another thing that tens of thousands of picketers very soon took over from them the control of the city.

However, an undeterred LDF continued its preparations including organisation of campaign jathas in every district to make the siege programme a grand success. While in Kannur, Pinarayi Vijayan said the Left had the courage to face all the stringent measures of the chief minister, that tens of thousands of workers would reach Thiruvananthapuram before August 12 to take part in the picketing, and that the struggle would go on till the chief minister stepped down. He was confident that the mass consciousness sided with the LDF and its struggle on the issue.

While terming all this as a proof that Oommen Chandy was behaving like an autocrat, Pinarayi Vijayan said that the LDF did not believe in toppling a government by foul means. Its demand simply was that the tainted chief minister must resign, he informed at a press conference.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan too warned that no force would be able to suppress the people’s movement in Kerala, and underlined that the government’s decision to call the central forces proved the inefficiency of the state police.

In the meanwhile, government chief whip P C George too said that the problem could be solved only through the chief minister’s resignation.