Thiruvananthapuram: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government is now completing one year in office in Kerala. While the government claims that they have made remarkable achievements, the opposition, congress led UDF, is calling it a total failure.
The major criticism against Vijayan is that he is still confined to the image of a tough party secretary and has not been able to make the smooth transition as the chief Minister.
The controversies surrounding the government included appointment of the CM’s advisors, right from the appointment of Gita Gopinath as the economic advisor when T M Thomas Issac was the finance minister. At present the CM has 8 advisors.
Then there was the case of eviction of encroachers in Munnar, where the government was seen not supporting the officers who were responsible for the eviction.
This has also led to a tiff between the CPM and CPI, the second major party in the LDF. The CPI minister handles the revenue portfolio. Right from the beginning, there has been differences of opinion between CPM and CPI on many issues and the leaders of both parties have voiced their opinions publicly.
Another controversy dogging the government is the handling of Jishnu Pranoy case. Images of the mother of the young engineering student who committed suicide being dragged by police had become etched in the public mind. The major criticism against the Chief Minister is that he is not able to sort out an issue before it boiled up. Many feel that if the CM had met the mother even after the incident, things would have been different.
The CPM’S new found closeness to K M Mani, the former finance minister has also left many wondering. It was the LDF that was up in arms against Mani during his tenure, calling him as corrupt after the bar bribe scam. When in opposition, LDF legislatures were seen pulling out the speaker’s chair and creating ruckus inside the Kerala assembly to prevent Mani from presenting the state budget. But now, in some local bodies, the CPM is supporting Mani’s Party. CPI has been against this and has been very vocal about it.
Then there was the Supreme Court order to reinstate T P Senkumar as the police chief which has also been a major setback for the state government and Vijayan.
He said that the previous five years under UDF were ridden with corruption, sleaze, chaos and blatant misuse of power vitiating the entire political atmosphere in the state. Despite serious corruption cases, ministers continued to cling to power shamelessly.
Unlike the previous government, there will be no guardians for such wrong doers in the LDF rule. “During last one year the focus has been on purifying the political state of affairs,” he said.
Vijayan said that the traditional sectors including coir and cashew had been revived. Opening of KAPEX brought back jobs for over 18,000 workers. Handicraft sector got a major boost after being asked to supply 2.30 lakh school uniforms. Welfare pension dues worth Rs 1900 crore were sent to the beneficiaries.
He said Life Mission would ensure roofs over the heads of homeless people. The mission includes livelihood programs, elderly care, palliative care and employment for at least one member of the family.
He also said an undeclared recruitment ban was lifted by the LDF government.
Meanwhile, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the LDF government was a failure in all fronts. At a press conference, he read out a 'chargesheet' of 63 failures of the state government.
Chennithala said that the government could not list out a single development project in the last year. Whatever they are boasting about now, like Kochi Metro and Kannur airport are the legacies of the previous UDF government, he said, calling the government ‘fascist’.
The Chief Minister is currently inaugurating the projects launched by the UDF government.
Chennithala said, “The biggest claim of the LDF government is that they are fighting against corruption. What was the reason that minister E P Jayarajan had to resign? The CM has also proved that they are giving protection to the people involved in corruption when R Balakrishna Pilali was made the chairman of the forward communities’ corporation.”
“Kerala has faced the worst crisis in law and order after LDF government came to power. About 18 killed in political violence of which 8 are from Kannur itself,” he added.
Environmentalists say that the present government can be assessed in two ways, one by comparing it with the previous UDF government and other by comparing it with the previous LDF government led by V S Achuthanandan.
Harish Vasudevan, an advocate who takes up environmental causes, said, “In Comparison with the previous UDF government we are seeing a remarkable change and say it is successful as far as environmental and land issues are concerned. At least four decisions of the earliest UDF government including were stopped by the LDF government. These were basically for reclaiming paddy lands and wetlands. They couldn’t achieve many promises in the LDF manifesto but have taken a step forward in that direction.”
However, Vasudevan said that compared it to the previous LDF government, the situation is pathetic.
“The VS (Achuthanandan) government had taken proactive measures as far as environment was concerned. They had brought in and started implementing the Paddy and Wetland Conservation Act, 2008, aimed at conserving paddy, wetland and mangroves within the state. There was increase in forest cover and even declaration of new sanctuaries. The present government has withdrawn from all these proactive measures,” he said.
He added that even projects like “Haritha Keralam” are all peripheral moves and are basically PR kind of environmental activity.
BRP Bhaskar, a political analyst, said that both the LDF and UDF governments in the past have been surviving on welfare measures and this government is following that.
He added that the expectation were very high from this government and CM because for the first time, the CM full control of his party unlike his predecessors from both the LDF and the UDF.
“In the past one year, Pinarayi Vijayan has not been able to take advantage of that image. I feel he is not able to perform because he has failed to transfer from party secretary to chief minister. As secretary, he was surrounded by people whom he could order about but if he uses the same language as the head of government, it is very bad,” Bhaskar said.
He brought a DGP of his own choice but that proved to be a disaster, in the past 10 months there were a series of incident bringing the police department in bad light including arrest of writers, handling of the Jishnu Pranoy case, he added.
“The party line is also a problem unlike earlier as there is a move to woo minority voters and that can be seen in the stand in the Munnar eviction. This has affected the performance of the government,” Bhaskar said.
J Prabhash, a political scientist, said that in comparison with the previous government, this government has shown improvement especially in areas of corruption.
“Pensioners got their arrears and have also increased the pensions. Steps were taken for the betterment of the transgender like providing jobs for them in Kochi metro and also holding an athletic meet for them. Even the step to provide sanitary napkins in all school is a good initiative,” Prabhash said.
He added that people are not noticing the good work due to the controversies and the CPM –CPI tiff.
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