The ongoing strike by left employee unions against the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) management appears to have the trappings of a ‘blue-on-blue’ incident, a military scenario in which ‘friendly’ forces savage each other by accident, erroneous signalling, misunderstanding or the fog of war.
The CITU and AITUC unions are striking against KSEB chairman B. Ashok's decision to deploy the State Industrial Security Force (SISF) at Vydyuthi Bhavan and other installations. They have, furthermore, accused Mr. Ashok of authoritarianism and disdain for unions.
The workers strike threatened to disrupt the functioning of the public sector undertaking tasked with power generation, transmission and distribution, critical services covered under the ESMA.
With the LDF unions arguably dragging the Power Ministry through the mud, the government seemed to have found itself in a spot ahead of the Assembly session.
Their spat with Mr. Ashok has threatened to draw Electricity Minister K. Krishnankutty of the Janata Dal (Secular) into the raging controversy, portending fratricidal trouble in the LDF.
Former Power Minister M. M. Mani, seemingly stung by Mr. Ashok’s ‘damning disclosures’ about KSEB’s functioning during the previous LDF government, has openly doubted whether his successor, Mr. Krishnankutty, had instigated the controversy.
CITU leader Elamaram Kareem, MP, ominously reminded Mr. Ashok that ‘KSEB is not Kashmir.’ Mr. Ashok had claimed that security concerns, including the recurrent leak of sensitive information, had impelled the stationing of the SISF.
Mr. Ashok’s social media claim that the unions had bulldozed through a ₹1,200 crore salary revision package without government sanction and assigned prime KSEB land to CPI(M) managed cooperative societies for hydel tourism projects had further goaded the unions into the fight.
Meanwhile, the Opposition was poised to raise Mr. Ashok’s ‘disclosures’ in the Assembly. Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan has further alleged big-ticket corruption in purchasing power from private companies at excessive rates and without the Regulatory Commission’s sanction.
The government, it appeared, wanted to desperately prevent a "shoot oneself in the foot" situation. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has asked Mr. Krishnankutty to settle the imbroglio. Consequently, the Minister has invited trade union leaders for reconciliatory talks at his official residence on Thursday.
