A palpable sense of anti-climax seemed to pervade Kerala’s political sphere on Thursday, with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) apparently executing a “last-minute flip flop” on its “earlier resolve” to spotlight a Kochi-based mining company’s alleged backhanders to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter and IT entrepreneur T. Veena Vijayan in the Assembly on Thursday.
The UDF’s “dread” that the scandal would prove double-edged seemed to have stayed the Opposition’s hand.
Congress “belatedly learned” that the IT department filings before an adjudication board in New Delhi also revealed sizeable handouts to UDF leaders and mediapersons, ostensibly to mute their objections to the company’s “environmentally hazardous” black sand-mining operations in Kerala, during the 2016-20 period.
The muckraking reports that deluged the government owed its provenance to the board’s rejection of the mining firm’s contention that the “questionable” monthly payments were bonafide business expenditure and hence qualifiable for input tax credit relief.
The UDF’s “stunning about-face” on the issue also seemed to cause new fissures in Congress. For one, it spurred Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan to raise the Opposition’s charges in the House during the debate on the Kerala Government Land Assignment Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
The somewhat “tame debate” took an edgy turn, with Speaker A.N. Shamseer cutting off Mr Kuzhalnadan’s mike at the instance of Law Minister P. Rajeeve.
Cong. blames rules
Outside the House, Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan said the Assembly’s rules prevented the UDF from raising the subject as an adjournment motion during the Zero Hour. Mr. Satheesan stopped short of giving a clean chit to the government. Still, he categorised the firm’s handouts to top UDF leaders as legitimate political donations.
Congress’s “hasty volte-face” arguably opened the door for the CPI(M) to seize the high moral ground and seemingly helped the BJP wring some rhetorical political advantage. The CPI(M) stated the mining company paid Ms. Veena’s software consultancy for services rendered.
The agenda-driven right-wing media portrayed the bank transfers as bribes. Ms. Veena’s firm was not party to the mining company’s dispute with IT assessors. Moreover, the adjudication board did not hear Ms Veena, the CPI(M) said.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said the Congress and the CPI(M) were on the same page on corruption. They were political rivals only on paper. The BJP was the legitimate opposition in Kerala. “Mr.Satheesan turned tail and fled in the face of the allegations against Mr. Vijayan,” he added.
