Betrayal-The Hallmark of Indian Communist’s

Volt face on ADB loan and Smart City project

As in the case of Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal, the Marxist comrades have also cheated the people of Kerala..The CPM, which came to power in Kerala protesting against the policies of the then Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF) government, has now cheated the people by implementing the very same programmes and policies they opposed when they were in the opposition.

The agreement between the Kerala Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), providing loan for “sustainable development” in the five city municipal corporations of the State and the much debated ‘Smart City’ project at Kochi have come into effect, exposing the duplicity of the Marxists.

The CPM opposed tooth and nail the seeking of ADB loan when the idea was first mooted in 2005. The contract agreed recently by the Achutanandan ministry with the ADB clearly proves the hollowness of the comrades ‘fighting’ ADB imperialists!

   Political observers of the State consider much significance to the CPM ministry signing the pact with ADB as this is going to help them in thoroughly analyzing the ideological commitment of the Marxists.

Chief Minister VS Achuthnadan, who was the fiery opponent of ADB and its programmes during his day as the Opposition leader ten months back,  is the first man who is now on the receiving end for all attacks from the opponents of ADB.  Achutanandan who is imprisoned in the ministry by the Pinarayi group cuts a sorry figure in this tragedy. The Chief minister sensing danger to his seat had ultimately surrendered to the Pinarayi faction and agreed to sign the pact with ADB.

Novelist Sara Joseph, who leads the anti ADB Campaign Committee, which has even moved the High Court asking for an interim stay, is the most vocal opponent of Achuthandan now. It was last Saturday that Sara at a convention in Kochi lambasted all the CPI (M) leaders.

The volt face on ADB loan was not limited to the CPM. The party’s youth wing, the DYFI, had for five continuous years consistently haunted the previous Congress-led government by launching aggressive agitations for its moves for various financial arrangements with the ADB. Kerala had seen protest marches and demonstrations against ADB in all the 14 districts and the same people now wanted to bring it here with its humiliating and trapping conditions.  There was even a Communist-led attack on the ADB office in Thiruvananthapuram.

The young comrades have drawn their inspiration from Achuthanandan who had declared that the secretaries who would sign the agreement for ADB loan would be beaten up. However, the scene is different now, as the Communists regime has signed the agreement, the DYFI and SFI have changed its track. Its secretary P Sreeramakrishnan appears on TV shows almost everyday justifying signing the pact.

The ADB has already said that it does not change its rules for different circumstances, but State ministers and Communist leaders, in order to save their face, say that they were successful in bringing changes in the ADB rules! Congress leaders say that noting has changed (meaning an admission by them that the riders could be harmful to the State). However, sociologists and economists say that ADB cannot disburse a loan for Kerala without the conditions it has designed as a policy.

So there are riders. And everybody knows that. These riders will never be in State’s interest.  But in the LDF met to discuss the issue all the left parties voted with the loan seekers saying the ADB loan is needed to modernize the Municipalities!

DUPLICITY IN SMART CITY PROJECT

The Marxist party cheated the people of Kerala in the ‘Smart City’ project too. It is a project that the Left Democratic Front (LDF), when in the Opposition in 2003, had termed the biggest real estate racket in the state.. V.S. Achuthanandan, then the leader of the Opposition, had even threatened that if and when the LDF came to power, he would “put all the backers of the project behind bars”.

But that was in 2003. Now the chief minister of Kerala and his party has come a long way since then. The ruling CPI (M), once the bitterest opponent of the Rs 2,200-crore Smart City project, is now pursuing it with the zeal that would reveal the duplicity of the comrades. The project in Kochi proposed by Dubai’s Technology and Media Free Zone Authority (TECOM) now appears determined to implement it-on its own terms. TECOM, who are also promoters of the high-tech 246-acre Dubai Internet City, has successfully compelled the government to accept most of its conditions.

It is understood from reliable sources that the TECOM’s demand of ownership of the land at the end of the 25-year lease period has been accepted in toto by the Marxist government. Last Week, TECOM representatives said, “We have accepted all the other conditions of the Government. But if the ownership of land is not with the company, it would be difficult to attract top international majors to invest in the project”.

While sitting in the Opposition, Achuthanandan had specifically objected to three clauses that the then Congress-led government had included in the MOU: the government’s offer to charge only a nominal price of Re 1 per acre for 100 acres being handed over to the project; handing over the Rs 100-crore Infopark (an existing infrastructure facility in the heart of the land proposed to TECOM) and the marginal share of 9 percent for the state government in the new Smart City company. Disregarding all opposition, the UDF-led government was on the verge of signing the deal when polls were announced.

But when Achutanandan became leader of the ruling combination, he suddenly turned investor friendly and sprang a surprise by announcing that he would go ahead with the Smart City project. “We are not going implement the project under UDF’s conditions but on our own,” said Achuthanandan. But as in the case of ADB loan, his government is all set to sign the MOU with TECOM on the same terms and conditions proposed by the previous congress regime.

Now the CPM argue,“The land is not being handed over to a private player but to a company in which the state government has a stake. Why worry?” asks comrades.

What has made TECOM return to the state in spite of changed governments and conditions is also worth noting. There were speculations that huge underground money transactions were made, particularly to the CPM and its selected leaders.

The Smart City project is all set to become the biggest ever  real estate racket in the State.

The ADB loan agreement and the Smart City project have already a reality. Now observers are watching keenly how the money to come from the international agency is going to be utilized and the way the Smart city functions.

The CPI (M) and its foster organizations are deviating from its avowed principles in ‘utter disregard’ of the common man’s interests, especially on their differing stands on the issue of availing the ADB loans and on the Smart City project.

Kerala is now reeling under the double-stand of ruling CPM and its foster organizations, which had unleashed series of violent agitations against previous Government’s moves to avail ADB loan and opting to go in for the Smart City project.