Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has reiterated his faith in the party’s central leadership and said he remained loyal to the Gandhi-Nehru family all his life.
In an interview with The Hindu early this week, he said the party high command was the last word for him.
“The party has given me everything. Indira Gandhi made me NSUI [National Students’ Union of India] national president. Rajiv Gandhi made me Indian Youth Congress president. P.V. Narasimha Rao made me secretary of the AICC [All India Congress Committee]. Sonia Gandhi made me a special and permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and the Kerala PCC [Pradesh Congress Committee] president. Rahul Gandhi made me the Opposition Leader...,” Mr. Chennithala recounted.
While the announcement of his selection as a permanent invitee to the CWC – a post he held 19 years ago – pained him, he would abide by the party’s decision. “This is the time for every Congressman to stand together and fight the next Parliament election which is important for the country. Because if Modi comes to power again, the country will be ruined. There is an alternative and the INDIA alliance can win,” he said adding that all five Kerala-based leaders selected to positions in the CWC merited being part of the apex body.
Mr. Chennithala said he never hankered after any position and cited his ‘tireless work’ as a humble worker in the past two years, ever since he was removed as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. He said he drew his strength from the love and affection showered on him by his party workers and the people.
The Congress in Kerala, he argued, was a house in order. “Compared to earlier, there is no problem in the Congress now. Earlier there were divisions, infighting and public utterances against one another. The Congress and the United Democratic Front are intact and ready to face any challenge thrown by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or the Bharatiya Janata Party,” he said.
Asked about K. Muraleedharan’s disparaging statements in the wake of the UDF’s victory in the Puthuppally byelection, he said it never augured good for the party to give ammunition to opponents. “Every political party is bound to have internal differences. I have so many differences too, but I never washed dirty linen in public. If you do so, people will lose faith in you. I would urge Muraleedharan, a responsible leader and a former PCC president, to desist from making such utterances.”
He said the spectacular victory in Puthuppally was a demonstration of the unity of every Congress and UDF worker and the trend, he reckoned, would continue across the State “as the people are fed up with corruption, nepotism, unemployment and lack of development in the State”.
He flayed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for his long-drawn silence in front of the media and the people on the allegations levelled against Mr. Vijayan’s family members in a ruling by the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board against a Kochi-based company.
Mr. Chennithala said the donation he accepted from the company in question was in his capacity as PCC president and “it has been accounted in the party ledger”.
To a question, he said he had no differences with Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and KPCC president K. Sudhakaran and that he was consulted by them on all important issues. He also maintained a cordial relationship with Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who Mr. Chennithala would consider fit for any post nationally and in the State.
Citing the Central Bureau of Investigation report exonerating the late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the solar case, Mr. Chennithala demanded an investigation into the conspiracy to fabricate evidence and implicate Oommen Chandy in the case. “No Congressman was involved in this conspiracy. I was PCC president then and we were fully supporting Oommen Chandy. We knew he was innocent,” he said.
Asked if the Congress was peddling soft-Hindutva in the light of the party’s stance in the Sabarimala entry-for-all-women verdict and in the recent controversy over the Speaker’s remarks on nurturing a scientific temper, Mr. Chennithala said he was a Hindu, but not Narendra Modi’s Hindu.
“I’m Mahatma Gandhi’s Hindu. It means we embrace all religions – sarva dharma samabhav. We have no ill will towards other religions or people. India is a pluralistic society with several faiths and the Congress takes everyone together. The BJP wants a Hindu-Muslim division. They want to spread hatred among the people. Look at Manipur. More than 300 churches were burnt. Has the PM uttered a word or attempted to stop this? He was silent and it was a clear message to the people who committed this vandalism to continue with that. We believe in secularism,” he said.
Sabarimala and the Ganesha controversy, he contended, pertained to questions of faith. “Faith is important. We believe in that. I am not an atheist. I believe in God. My belief should be protected. Scientific temper is different. If people believe in God, why should you unnecessarily criticise them? Crores of people worship Ganesha. Why is the Speaker calling it a myth? We stand for people’s belief. It’s not soft Hindutva. It’s real faith.”
