A sordid scandal that rocked Kerala politics a decade before has returned to dominate discussions on mainstream and social media.
The so-called solar scam that surfaced in 2013 accrued all the classic ingredients of a high-voltage sex-for-political patronage scandal over the past 10 years.
It possessed elements of high political intrigue, tales of clandestine conspiracies and whispers of powerful politicians pursuing personal vendettas.
The scandal centred around a businesswoman’s accusation that a galaxy of Congress leaders, including the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, had sought sexual favours from her on the “vain promise” of extending official backing for her nascent solar energy venture.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), then in the opposition, beat the solar scam drums to gain a clear propaganda advantage in the 2016 Assembly elections. It forced the UDF government into instituting a judicial commission to probe the scam.
The findings of the Commission proved double-edged for the UDF. It concluded that there was merit in the woman’s accusations and recommended a criminal enquiry.
In 2017, the LDF government accepted the Commission’s recommendations, tabled the report in the Assembly and ordered a Crime Branch enquiry.
The probe meandered unhurriedly until the LDF government dropped a second political bombshell in the run-up to the State Assembly elections in 2021. It ordered a CBI probe into the woman’s accusations.
Absolved of crimes
After two years of intrusive inspections, including a high-profile “evidence collection” at the Cliff House once occupied by Chandy and seemingly perennial bad press for the Congress, the CBI absolved the suspects of wrongdoing in 2023.
Yet, the Solar scam has refused to fade away. It has also displayed an uncanny penchant for surfacing seemingly impromptu in the public domain from time to time.
Last week, all hell broke loose when an online news portal reported the existence of a purported CBI court filing that pointed to a top-level LDF conspiracy to implicate Chandy and other Congress leaders in the solar scam-linked sexual misconduct case.
The supposed legal record is yet to emerge in the public domain. Nevertheless, television news channels and Congress leaders echoed the CBI’s “conclusion” as a given.
The scandal’s unflattering and belated political backwash caught the government unawares. Suddenly, the timing of the order also appeared highly suspect. Moreover, it seemed the government had a political axe to grind against Chandy.
The purported CBI finding also had a contradictory outcome for Congress. Allegations flew fast and thick that the case owed its provenance to the internal wrangling among Congress ministers for the Chief Minister’s post in the previous UDF government.
The Congress denied the accusation. However, the imputations provided ammunition for the CPI(M) to posit that fratricidal bloodletting in Congress spawned the solar case.
It pointed to the 1994 ISRO spy case that saw the exit of the then Chief Minister K. Karunakaran.
The Congress has cast Mr. Vijayan at the centre of the plot to disparage Chandy in his twilight years. The government’s assurance to hold a probe if the Congress furnished the “incriminating CBI report” cut no ice with the opposition.
Appealing to layman
Given the outpouring of public grief following Chandy’s death and the decisive win of his son, Chandy Oommen, in the Puthuppally Assembly byelection, the Congress sensed the demand for a probe to net the conspirators would appeal to the ordinary person’s sense of justice.
Moreover, the party felt the narrative that Chandy was a martyr to a vicious and pitiless CPI(M) conspiracy in his autumn years would transcend politics and resonate among voters in future elections.
Given the ambiguity surrounding the provenance of the Solar case and its echoes in State politics, the government appears to have a duty to get to the bottom of the episode and set the record straight by instituting a convincingly independent probe in the larger public interest.
anand.g@thehindu.co.in
