The Kerala Assembly session was the best chance the LDF government had to rebut all grave allegations it was facing, especially after the PV Anvar rebellion. Was the CPM able to clear the air and restore its political credibility? Ayyappan R joins the discussion on News Brake.
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[00:00:00] On the last day of the 12th Kerala Assembly Session, the by-election dates for Vainat Lok Sabha seat and Palakad and Chelakara Assembly seats were announced.
[00:00:11] The Assembly Session was the best chance the LDF government had to rebut all the grave allegations it was facing, especially after the PV Anwar rebellion.
[00:00:23] Hi and welcome to Newsbreak. This is Harita Benjamin and today on Manorama Senior Correspondent, Ayyupan R joins us to talk about the recent Kerala Assembly Session.
[00:00:40] So Ayyupan, was the CPM able to clear the air and restore its political credibility finally in this Assembly Session?
[00:00:49] The answer would be somewhere in between no and yes, probably close to no.
[00:00:55] Most of the grave allegations that have been hurled at the government and the CPM by PV Anwar and the UDF have been left unanswered.
[00:01:03] But on the other hand, it looks like the government has managed to reverse the perception that it prefers to run away from uncomfortable truths.
[00:01:11] Right. And how was this achieved?
[00:01:14] By agreeing to a comprehensive debate on the floor of the Assembly on all controversial issues, a strategy rarely employed by embattled governments.
[00:01:22] It also helped that the CPI, which had publicly expressed outrage at the CM's reluctance to punish the ADGP, stood by the CPM in the Assembly.
[00:01:32] And the government ploy worked, at least to begin with.
[00:01:34] The UDF was caught off guard on August 7, the first functional day of the session.
[00:01:40] Rather than demonstrate shrewd cunning restraint, the UDF staged what looked like disproportionate aggression and apparent retaliation for certain comments made by the ruling benches against the opposition leader.
[00:01:52] This allowed Speaker A.N. Shamsir to justifiably call off the day without the confirmed discussion on Malappuram PR issue.
[00:02:02] This gave the impression that the UDF did not have the heart to fight.
[00:02:07] However, after the first day bungled, the UDF was better prepared.
[00:02:12] Alright. Though you said that the government ploy worked, was the government able to satisfactorily answer the posers which were hurled at it?
[00:02:21] Though seemingly courageous, this combative stance of the government was still a risky gamble.
[00:02:29] Because as it turned out, the government had no intention to take on any of the charges head-on.
[00:02:35] Many pertinent questions on various issues were raised by the UDF during this Assembly session.
[00:02:41] Here are the 10 most important ones.
[00:02:46] 1. Has the Intelligence Wing informed the Chief Minister of the ADGP's unofficial meetings with RSS leaders?
[00:02:54] If so, has the CM sought any explanation from the ADGP?
[00:02:58] 2. Why was an investigation into the ADGP's RSS links ordered only on September 25 this year, 16 months after the ADGP met RSS General Secretary Tathatarya Hoshibale in May 2023?
[00:03:14] 3. After the Chief Minister's interview with the Hindu, it was under whose instruction that a PR agency asked the Daily to add a few sentences that were not originally spoken by the CM?
[00:03:26] 4. If this was done without the sanction of the Chief Minister's office, would the government initiate legal proceedings against the PR agency?
[00:03:38] 5. Why was the ADGP removed from law and order?
[00:03:42] Is it for meeting RSS leaders or was it for his links to gold smuggling and murders as PVN were alleged or was it for mishandling Trishur Pura?
[00:03:53] 6. When ministers were told by the police not to enter the Puram grounds, who allowed an ambulance carrying India candidate Suresh Gubi to reach the spot?
[00:04:04] 7. Why was there a 5 month delay in submitting a report for which the CM had originally set a deadline of one week? Did the CM ever enquire about the delay?
[00:04:17] 8. Did the CM get information about the chaos that was happening at the Puram grounds? If so, did he call either the ADGP or the District Commissioner in charge to seek details?
[00:04:27] 9. If the government believed that the RSS was behind the conspiracy to sabotage the Puram, why did it take 5 months to declare a comprehensive probe?
[00:04:38] 10. Did the police even register an FIR? And then, and this was an issue that came up during the session and amplified suspicions of an illicit CPM-BJP deal.
[00:04:50] 10. Why did the police delay the submission of the charge sheet in the Manjeshwaram bribery case related to BJP President K. Surendran?
[00:04:58] 11. Why did the police not even file an application to condone the delay?
[00:05:02] Right, that's a lot of questions. So, did the government answer any of these?
[00:05:07] 11. The government went nowhere near any of these questions. But it did respond partly to one question, to the one related to the PR agency.
[00:05:17] It held up one part of the Hindu clarification that said that words not spoken by the CM were included in the interview,
[00:05:24] but chose to deliberately ignore the other side of the Hindu clarification that these words were inserted at the behest of a PR agency.
[00:05:32] 11. Instead of mounting direct counters, the government used whataboutry, the tendency to respond to an accusation by hurling a counter-accusation.
[00:05:42] For instance, when told that the CM had used the ADGP as a middleman to strike a deal with the RSS,
[00:05:47] the government spoke of how Rajiv Gandhi dispatched former Goa Governor Khurshid Alam Khan to meet RSS Swain Sarsangachalak Balasabdi Auras in 1989.
[00:05:57] There was yet another defence that the government employed in the Assembly, and this can be best described by the title of an iconic Bashir Mawala,
[00:06:07] Endu Pupai Kurane Ndara. My grandfather had an elephant.
[00:06:10] CPM speakers kept recalling the past deeds of the CPM and Punduray Vijayan, virtually admitting that in the present there was nothing celebrated about the party and its leader.
[00:06:22] It looks like many of the questions the government had deliberately refused to answer in the Assembly will return to haunt it during the by-election campaign.
[00:06:32] Absolutely. And now with the ADM suicide snowballing into a major crisis, it looks like the LDF has yet another cross to bear as it campaigns for its by-elections.
[00:06:44] So thanks a lot, Ayya, for joining us this week on Newsbreak. That brings us to an end of today's episode.
[00:06:51] This is On Manuruma's Newsbreak, an explainer podcast which is produced by Harita Benjamin.
[00:06:56] It airs every week and is available on all podcast platforms. Do follow on Manuruma.com for the latest updates.