Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] appeared to warily eye United Democratic Front (UDF) ally and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader N.K. Premachandran’s controversial presence at a luncheon meeting hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament last week.
CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan said the aura of political bonhomie that permeated the high-profile meeting had cast a shadow over the “shaky” secular credentials of the Congress-led UDF Opposition in Kerala ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
He said ”heart-to-heart” luncheon diplomacy to woo Opposition politicians to their side was the latest weapon in the BJP’s arsenal. The Sangh Parivar used such cosy and conversational meals with money power to persuade elected leaders from non-BJP parties to defect to its side. He said the BJP had repeatedly resorted to horse trading to construct fragile coalitions in States by buying Opposition legislators.
“Such a cynical game to unsettle legitimately elected non-BJP governments occurred in Bihar ahead of the vote of confidence for the Sangh Parivar-backed Nitish Kumar government,” Mr. Govindan said.
Sole Opposition MP
He said it remained an intriguing political puzzle why Mr. Modi had chosen Mr. Premachandran as the sole Opposition MP to partake of the formal lunch the Prime Minister hosted in the LS canteen. “The rest of the persons who attended the lunch were curiously BJP allies,” Mr. Govindan pointed out.
He said Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan had defended Mr. Premachandran by stating that the RSP leader had adhered to protocol by graciously accepting the PM’s invitation. “Mr. Satheesan and his cohorts showed no such nicety when they boycotted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Christmas lunch,” he added.
Anti-Left
He said the Congress in Kerala was patently anti-Left and hewed to the BJP’s political line. “It had degenerated as the ideological echo chamber of the BJP. It thoughtlessly parroted the canards that the Sangh Parivar-controlled Central agencies spread to disparage Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his family, his office, and other CPI(M) leaders,” Mr. Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan also accused the Congress leadership in Kerala of trying to undermine the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s attempt to cobble together a politically bipartisan platform comprising non-BJP-ruled States to muster public opinion against the Centre’s alleged trespasses on the foundational ideals of cooperative federalism.
