Achuthanandan isolation complete in CPM

The isolation of senior Polit Bureau member and
State Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan in the CPI(M) by the neo-liberalist
faction headed by party State secretary Pinaryi Vijayan is now simply a matter
of formality. The completion of his isolation in the party, for which he had
dedicated more than seven decades of his life, would be done once he formally
asks tow of his aides, perhaps the only two remaining on his side, to vacate the
positions they currently hold.

With the instruction given to him on
Saturday by the State secretariat to remove Joseph C Mathew, the Chief
Minister’s IT Advisor, and K Anilkumar, Senior Government Pleader in the office
of the Advocate General, the neo-liberalists in the party have practically
succeeded in cutting off all helplines for the octogenarian leader, the only
remaining person of the 32 communists who walked out of the CPI in 1964 to found
the CPI(M).

Achuthanandan had defied the instruction of the State
secretariat in this regard once but part y sources said, this time he had no
option but to comply with the decision. After the fuming out of KM Shajahan,
Achuthanandan’s additional personal secretary earlier, and several others
including K Suresh Kumar, IAS, these two were the only people he had got on his
side to help him withstand the neo-liberalist designs to influence his rule as
Chief Minister.

Achuthanandan had kept the portfolio of IT very
laboriously when the neo-liberalists had taken away several important portfolios
like Vigilance from him banking exclusively on Joseph C Mathew, himself an IT
expert. He had successfully re-negotiated Rs 15-billion Smart City Kochi
project, which he had objected to during the tenure of Congress leader Oommen
Chandy as Chief Minister, with Dubai-based promoters Tecom (Technology and Media
Free Zone) with the strength of the support and advises given by
Joseph.

In fact, the IT advisor was said to have been talking on behalf
of the Chief Minister to Tecom at every crucial juncture of the agreement for
Smart City project. Even when he failed to fulfill any of the promises, he had
made to the people before the last Assembly elections (as imprisonment of the
culprits is sex abuse scandals, cancellation of move for ADB loan, retrieval of
encroached Government land), Smart City was projected as his single largest
achievement.

However, with the intensification of the efforts to dethrone
him as Chief Minister and to defeat his plans against pro-capitalist economic
reforms as envisaged by the neo-liberalists, the Pinarayi faction decided to
take away all his aides, who, the reformists thought, were the inspiration and
force behind him.

Joseph C Mathew had been accused of interfering with
the Mission Munnar anti-encroachment drive, which was to become a synonym of the
revolution Achuthanandan had promised to the people of Kerala during his
election campaigning if not for the objections from the neo-liberalist camp.

It also became the nemesis for the influence of K Suresh Kumar IAS, the
first special officer to head the mission in Munnar, who had now been charged by
the party with accepting money from big encroachers.

Senior Government
Pleader K Anilkumar is known as a VS-man and allegations had come from the
CPI(M) reformists that he was acting as an agent in the Advocate General’s
office for Achuthanandan. He had come under severe attack during the controversy
over the takeover of the Trivandrum Golf Club.

The recent spate of
action against Achuthanandan’s aides followed a concerted effort by the
neo-liberalists to complete his isolation in the party. Achuthanandan could not
prevent Suresh Kumar from falling into the trap set by the reformists, who, with
the help of a report of a commission on Munnar found fault with the IAS officer.

To add to that, S Rajendran, private secretary to the Chief Minister and
party State committee member, stated at a meeting that Achuthanandan was in the
grip of a coterie outside party and based in the Cliff House, the Chief
Minister’s official residence.

Rajendran also indicated that this
coterie was constituted with people like Suresh Kumar, Anilkumar and Joseph C
Mathew. Suresh Kumar responded acerbically, and it led to his suspension from
service, which Achuthanandan could not prevent.

Party insiders say that
the neo-liberalists are nearing their goal of removing Achuthanandan as Chief
Minister after the coming Lok Sabha election. Though they cannot afford to do
that before the election because that would mean lack of a popular face to lead
the poll campaign, they are making sure that he is no more getting help from his
trusted advisors.