Posters in Delhi ask CPM to make Dawood party chief

Posters
that appeared on Jantar Mantar Road, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Sansad
Marg, stuck by fellow-travelers of the party, questioned the legitimacy
of Karat’s act of supporting Pinarayi Vijayan even after the CBI listed
him as the ninth accused in the SNC Lavalin case.

The posters
sarcastically called for appointing Dawood Ibrahim as general secretary
of the CPI(M) instead of Praksh Karat. The bills, questioning the
Politburo’s position of favoruing Pinarayi even after such a huge scam
had come out, likened Karat to Dawood. They also ‘demanded’ that Monica
Bedi should be made PB member instead of Sitaram Yechuri.

Delhi,
like several places in Kerala, had been witnessing extensive poster
campaigns against Pinarayi over the SNC Lavalin issue. The posters had
appeared on Friday at the same place where bills had been put up
earlier in the context writer and Sahithya Akademi president M
Mukunadan’s reference to VS Achuthanandan as outdated saint.

Posters
in English and Malayalam had kept on appearing in several Delhi arreas
after the Politburo formally decided to support Pinarayi in the issue
of the scam. These posters that had appeared in English as well as
Malayalam had referred to Pinarayi as the executioner for the CPI(M).
Delhi had seen Malayalee workers and supporters of CPI(M) coming out on
the streets in demonstration in March 2006 when the Politburo had
refused to make Achuthnandan a candidate in the Assembly election.

Posters
criticising Pinarayi and his companions have been appearing all over in
Kannur, the capital of the Pinarayi-campers, and Kasaragod. The
flex-printed, multicolor boards appearing in Kannur and the surrounding
areas feature Pinarayi’ Vijayan’s pictures with raised hands. In his
clenched fist is seen a wad of currency notes. The boards reads:
‘“Pinarayi, thief of the poor’” and ‘“Imprison Pinarayi’”.

Kasaragod
was the place where the poster war had appeared first and, according to
reports, the supporters of Achuthanandan had succeeded in getting an
upper hand in this on the Pinarayi loyalists. The neo-liberalists were
forced to remove almost all the boards and banners that they had put up
to popularise the Yatra in the first round after the enemy posters
appeared.

The pro-Pinarayi men removed the boards and banners
with huge pictures of their leader and put up new ones with pictures of
late leaders like EMS Namboothirippad, AK Gopalan and EK Nayanar. In
Kasaragod district also, the police were keeping a close watch on the
situation.

In the meantime, protests in the camp of Chief
Minister and PB member VS Achuthanandan against the tirade made against
him by KEN Kunhahammad, secretary, Purogamana Kalasahithya Sangham, the
cultural outfit of the CPI(M). Demonstrations were held in several
places against Kunhahammad and his effigies were burned.

Rebels
in the SFI burned an effigy of Kunhahammad at the Government Law
College, Thrissur on Friday, protesting against his tirade against
Achuthanandan. The activists had been expelled after similar
anti-Pinarayi protests staged when the CPI(M) central leadership first
refused to make Achuthanandan a candidate in the last Assembly
election. DYFI workers had on Thursday evening burned Kunhahammed’s
effigy at Vadakara, Kozhikode.