Political alliances are known to change over time: old ties break and new ones are made. But the Congress and the CPI(M) also find that their friendship changes across space. They have built up extraordinary bonhomie in States such as West Bengal, Tripura, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as partners in the INDIA grouping while putting on public display their manic hostility in Kerala. Top leaders of the CPI(M) West Bengal unit had taken part in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Both parties have a seat-sharing arrangement in the Lok Sabha elections in States where they are on a sticky wicket. But they are at daggers drawn in Kerala, where the electoral fight is primarily between the United and Left fronts they lead. The INDIA bloc’s objective is to keep the BJP out, which is still a minion in Kerala. That, however, fails to explain the vitriol and venom spewed by Congress and CPI(M) leaders at each other, rocking their alliance elsewhere in India. The CPI(M)’s Kerala unit, which retains its organisational and political strength, has always had reservations about any understanding with the Congress anywhere in India. The party chose not to nominate a representative to INDIA’s coordination committee in September last year.
In Kerala, the Congress used the Enforcement Directorate’s inquiry against the CPI(M) in a cooperative bank case, and against the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s kin, to consistently attack the party and Mr. Vijayan. The CPI(M), on its part, flayed the Congress for not being able to stop the defection of its leaders to the BJP. That Mr. Gandhi chose to contest again from Wayanad, against the CPI’s Annie Raja, proved thorny, with the CPI(M) maintaining that as a national leader, he should ideally have taken on the BJP and not the Left front. Things came to a head when Mr. Gandhi launched a tirade against Mr. Vijayan for evading the ED’s questioning and arrest by accusing him of having a secret pact with the BJP. The gratuitous remark opened a Pandora’s box. While Mr. Vijayan reminded Mr. Gandhi of his (Mr. Vijayan’s) arrest during the Emergency, some Left leaders recalled Mr. Vijayan’s expression of solidarity when Mr. Gandhi was grilled by the ED. With neither side showing the readiness to bury the hatchet, the exchange has exposed the widening cracks in the INDIA bloc. The situation brings up the question of whether one is to focus their attention on the biggest enemy or on the worst enemy. The BJP sees as its ideological enemy both the Congress and the Left, but it can afford to watch silently as the two tear each other apart in Kerala.
