Rattled by the mounting war of attrition in the Congress camp over the Nelliampathy issue, the party high command has intervened and imposed a strict ban on airing views on the topic in the open.
KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, who was in New Delhi, made the announcement there on Wednesday on the strict directive of the high command. “There is already a ban existing on public statements on the topic. But still, the matter is being dragged into the streets. Henceforth, it will not be allowed under any circumstances,’’ Ramesh said.
The KPCC leadership has been asked to take strict action against those who defy the diktat, it is reliably learnt. The verbal spat between young Congress MLAs T N Pratapan and V D Satheesan and senior Congress leader M M Hassan had reached its nadir on Wednesday, with the latter joining issue with a counter remark. The issue, which was simmering in the Congress fold when Kerala Congress leader and Government Chief Whip P C George crossed swords with the same MLAs, took a turn for the worse with Hassan also coming down on Congress MLAs in a TV interview. He was interviewed against the backdrop of his quitting the convenorship of the sub-committee constituted to report on the Nelliampathy issue. He had termed the so-called `green politics’ of Pratapan and Satheesan as nothing but ‘’greedy politics,’’ triggering a debate.
Hassan also expressed doubts over why Prathapan didn’t take exception when his community’s name was tagged to him while the demand for ministership in the Oommen Chandy Government was made on his behalf, while he was crying foul against P C George for his alleged casteist remarks now. The MLAs retorted sharply against Hassan and clubbed him with George as ‘’birds of the same feather.’’ They also described him as the ‘’migratory bird’’ in the Congress who snatches away constituencies for contesting polls, but end up losing it and eventually making the seat a weak wicket for ever.
Hassan retorted on Wednesday that he was indeed a migratory bird, but for the sake of Congress and small birds and crows (referring to the MLAs) could not match it as they can make rounds only in the limited domain of their constituencies. He also trained his guns on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy maintaining that he had quit the UDF sub-committee convenorship since the former had never intervened. Chandy maintained that all concerned should exercise restraint. On the charge of Hassan, he said none had lodged any complaints on the issue within the party so far.
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