Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has said that the Damoclean threat of Central investigations has rendered the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] a subaltern partner in its “unholy nexus” with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala.
Speaking to The Hindu at his official residence in the Cantonment House in Thiruvananthapuram recently, Mr. Satheesan said the BJP and the CPI(M) shared a master-slave relationship.
He said a fraught history dyed by the indelible blood of party colleagues prevented the Congress from having any truck with the CPI(M) in Kerala, despite both being INDIA bloc allies against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the national level.
The CPI(M) has killed at least 50 Congress workers over the years in north Kerala alone. Congress activists’ antipathy to the CPI(M) borders on the visceral, he said. He said there was no dichotomy between Congress’s positions vis-a-vis the CPI(M) at the State and national levels.
‘Nothing has changed’
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has found a common cause with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) on issues such as the Palestine question and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the Assembly. However, that does not entail sharing a common political platform in Kerala during the pivotal Lok Sabha elections that could decide the country’s political trajectory. “Nothing has changed between the Congress and the CPI(M) on the ground in Kerala,” he said.
Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M)‘s narrative that the Congress was the BJP’s ideological echo chamber in Kerala had no merit. “Sometimes opposing parties find themselves on the same side of a debate. It does not mean an alliance,” he said.
‘Tacit alliance’
In contrast, the CPI(M) and the BJP have struck a tacit alliance to diminish the Congress in the State. For one, Central investigations against the CPI(M) leadership have ground to a halt. So have State law enforcement’s probe into BJP leaders accused of election bribery and hawala heists.
Mr. Satheesan said a top RSS leader had claimed that the Sangh Parivar had helped the CPI(M) in two Assembly polls. “No CPI(M) leader has denied it on record. Moreover, the LDF government rewarded a spiritual leader with a liberal lease on four acres of prime government land for acting as a bridge between the Sangh Parivar and the CPI(M),“ he said.
Mr. Satheesan said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener E.P. Jayarajan had endorsed two BJP candidates, saying they were champions not to be trifled with. He said neither Mr. Jayarajan nor Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had denied his accusation that the leaders’ families were business partners.
