People of Kerala came to know about the horse trading
indulged in by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and company on 9th
March when a CPM MLA R Selvaraj had tendered resignation from the Kerala assembly as
well as from the party. To say the
least, it was totally unexpected and came as a bolt from the blue. With this act at horse-trading, Oommen Chandy
and company are trying to introduce a malady in our political arena which was
completely absent in our state.
The reasons for resignation cited by him are the divisiveness
in the party and the fact that CPM had been discussing the reasons for its
defeat at Parassala at various forums. He has stated that he has got suffocated
due to these factors prompting him to resign his MLA-ship as also membership of
CPM. Moreover, during the press conference held to explain his resignation, he
had leveled many unfounded allegations which he had never made earlier in any
forum of the party. When CPM and other
parties in the LDF had alleged that Selvaraj had resigned after he was given many lucrative offers including crores of rupees
by UDF and its leaders, UDF leaders including Oommen Chandy had pooh-poohed
such an allegation. Moreover, when it had come to light that he had met the
Chief Minister alongwith Sri PC George, Chief Whip, prior to tendering
resignation, both Chief Minister as well
as PC George were quick to term those allegationsn also as baseless. The stand taken by UDF leaders including
Chief Minister on the issue has been that Selvaraj resigned as MLA and CPM
member owing to his getting disillusioned about divisiveness in the party and
UDF has nothing to do with it.
Even though Selvaraj had contested from Parassala and won earlier,
during the last assembly elections, CPM thought it would be in the fitness of
things if he contests from Neyyattinkara insead of Parassala while considering
Anavoor Nagappan for Parassala seat. CPM
was of the view that in this manner it would be possible to annex both the
seats. Accordingly, Selvaraj contested
from Neyyattinkara and won while Anavoor Nagappan who contested from Parassala
could not make it to the assembly. Following the defeat of the latter, certain
complaints regarding non-co-operation of some party workers and members of
Parassala were received by CPM who discussed the same in threadbare in the
relevant forums and corrective actions were taken. At that time Selvaraj did not express any
disagreement at any of the party forums and subsequently he was elected as
district committee member of the party.
It was in the above backdrop that the call list of
mobile calls made by Selvaraj and Chief Whip PC George was out the other
day. According to this, Selvaraj and PC
George had talked on mobile phone prior to meeting Chief Minsiter Oommen Chandy
in the wee hours of 9th March.
They had also talked on the previous day. As per the records, a call had gone from Selvaraj’s
PA TR Raghunath to PC George on 9th March lasting for 15
seconds. This was just before Selvaraj
had gone to meet Oommen Chandy in the Innova car owned by Mr.Sunny who is in
the personal staff of PC George, Chief Whip.
Again Selvaraj had talked to PC George after returning from Chief
Minister’s residence in the innova
car. On that day Selvaraj’s PA had
called PC George at 06.06 hrs and 06.24 hrs.
Once again at 07.33 hrs a call was made to PC George from Selvaraj’s PA
which lasted for 28 seconds. All these
indicate that prior to meeting the Speaker at his residence as well as after meeting
him, Selvaraj and PC George had talked over mobile phone. Similarly, at 23.12 hrs on 8th
March PC George had called Selvaraj’s PA and talked for 1.15 minutes. These proofs make it amply clear that the
ring leaders behind the whole episode of
horse-trading are none other than PC George and Chief Minister Oommen
Chandy. Even though PC George had flatly
denied his accompanying Selvaraj to Oommen Chandy’s residence, after the proof
regarding his contacting Selvaraj and his PA had come out, he has taken the
stand that he will call anybody as he deemed fit and media has no business to
question that.
The motive behind enticing Selvaraj with lucrative
offers was with a view to have ‘two birds with one shot’ i.e, to win Piravom
seat by creating confusion in the minds of LDF supporters as also to gain support of Selvaraj to get a candidate acceptable to UDF elected from
Neyyattinkara with UDF support which can even be Selvaraj himself.
The press reports indicate that Chief Minister Oommen
Chandy has already fulfilled two of the promises made to Selvaraj. The first one was to help Selvaraj’s
son-in-law’s father who is an accused in a criminal case to leave for abroad.
The second promise was fulfilled by
appointing Selvaraj’s son-in-law David Samuel as Capacity Co-ordinator of
Rajeev Awas Yojana Scheme under Kudumbasree at a hefty salary of Rs.40,000/-
p.m. flouting all extant rules of appointment concerning this post. Moreover, many concessions were given to him
in regard to many conditions of appointment by effecting suitable amendments
wherever needed. Originally Kudumbasree advertisement was issued for
appointment in Trissur Corporation where 1st rank holder Tony Thomas
was appointed. However, David Samuel,
son-in-law of Selvaraj who was 3rd in the rank was appointed in the
above capacity at Cochin Corporation unauthorizedly. That is to say, Cochin Corporation has so far
not advertised for the vacancy of this post.
It was stipulated that for the said post an experience of 5 years is
required whereas this condition was relaxed to 3 years in the subsequent notice
with a view to helping David Samuel. He
was at 10th position in the list of applicants. But after the interview he has become 3rd
rank holder. This is the second reward bestowed by Chief Minister Oommen
Chandy on Selvaraj.
What explanation Oommen Chandy has got to offer for
this currying favour to Selvaraj by—
(a) allowing Selvaraj’s
son-in-law’s father who is an accused in a criminal case to go abroad; and
(b) appointing his
son-in-law at a hefty salary of Rs.40,000/- p.m. as Capacity Co-ordinator of Kudumbasree at Cochin Corporation in flagrant violation of all extant rules as also
terms and conditions in respect of appointment of the said post.
Whatever it may be, these shameless acts will remain as
dark chapters of parliamentary democracy of our country and
speak volumes of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s stooping so low in order to remain
in power.
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