The Congress appears primed to weaponise the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on anomalies in the utilisation of police modernisation funds against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
The report had focussed public attention on the "fraudulent misuse" of Central funds to acquire luxury vehicles and villas for ranking officers at the cost of overhauling the ageing fleet of station house vehicles and quarters for rank and file personnel.
The Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the KPCC will meet here on Tuesday to chart the next course of action.
It might decide on seeking legal recourse to initiate a CBI inquiry into the CAG's "worrying" conclusion that the police had failed to account for 25 assault rifles and 12,061 rounds of ammunition.
Simultaneously, the party will campaign to draw public attention to the "wrongdoings" of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his "coterie" of advisors. The Congress has also demanded an anti-corruption inquiry against Keltron.
It suspects that the government had used the public entity as a front to bestow lucrative police modernisation contracts to "paper companies" with alleged links to the CPI(M) leadership.
The Congress is pointedly focussed on Keltron's "questionable" contracting of a private firm with "scant expertise" to implement the Central Intrusion Monitoring System (CIMS).
The party also seems compelled to factor in the fallout of high-profile anti-corruption inquiries and solar scam-related criminal cases initiated by the Pinarayi government against an array of top Congress leaders.
It has to complete its reorganisation, muster cadres to prepare for the upcoming local body elections and attempt to galvanise public opinion against the Central government for the recent hike in LPG prices.
The Congress could ill afford to cede the initiative in the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) agitation against the Centre to the CPI(M). It is increasingly wary of the efforts by the CPI(M) to use the anti-CAA platform to woo Muslim and Christian communities to the LDF fold.
The Congress looks particularly concerned about the CPI(M)'s overtures towards the IUML and wants to prevent its traditional strongholds from falling to the LDF in the tumult of the anti-CAA agitation.
