One Year of LDF Rule In Kerala

Performance, it seems, has not been the strengths of most of the Ministers in the VS Achuthanandan-led LDF Government, which will complete a year in office on Thursday. Observers refuse to give full marks to any of the Cabinet members, including the Chief Minister, as no path-breaking achievement was accomplished in the first year.

However, lack of performance has been one of the main charges levelled against the Cabinet by the Opposition UDF, and almost all Ministers had given ample opportunities to make such allegations. Apart from Education and Cultural Affairs Minister MA Baby and Health Minister PK Sreemathy, who have received most of the brickbats for non-performance, the other Ministers from the Marxist party have also not done much better.

Elamaram Kareem in the Industries Department, who with his enthusiasm in saving the Public Sector Units, has succeeded in earning credibility among the people, especially with the proposed establishment of a light wagon manufacturing unit at Autokast, Cherthala for the Indian Railways. But in general, the lustre is simply not there for the Ministry, experts observe.
Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has been one of the first Ministers to be charged with inefficiency as people continued to die either in police stations or while escaping the chasing police party. The deaths - more than ten in the first four months - could not all be termed due to persecution in custody, but Kodiyeri somehow failed in changing the impression of the Government which had come to power using also the custody death Udayakumar at Fort police station here.

Apart from other failures, the embarrassment caused by a taxi driver in the motorcade of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his State visit last October and the subsequent absence of any major action on the matter caused a lot of erosion of credibility of the CPI(M) leader as the Home Minister. He had also created a general dislike among people for himself when he refused to act as per the Chief Minister's wish in the IG Rishiraj Singh episode after a raid on the Kochi studios owned by the wife of IPS official Tomin Thachankery. Home, as is evident is not an easy job, and a first-timer like Kodiyeri might take a long time to prove his mettle.

Employment Affairs and Excise Minister PK Gurudasan is a soft-spoken proletarian leader, much like Chief Minister Achuthanandan and also belonging to his group in the CPI(M).
The beginning was grand as far his portfolios were concerned with several steps for the welfare of, especially, the cashew workers. The problem is, like the State-owned KSRTC, cashew is a very difficult area to be straightened by one man's efforts.

The cashew sector is again in doldrums with many shortcomings and irregularities perpetrated by vested interests. Though there are many who see some good points in Gurudasan's proposals in the Excise policy, the overall reaction was not encouraging.

The proposal to bring in toddy workers' cooperatives to own and operate toddy shops in three districts invited much criticism. However, most of the officials in the Excise Department do not hesitate to say that they have now got a minister who understands them, and this good will had translated into practice with many seizures of smuggled spirit.

The CPI representatives in the Cabinet were destined to be trapped in mind-boggling situations right from the initial days. Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran found that there was nothing he could do except to follow what the Chief Minister and CPI(M) was saying in the situation emanating from the unending series of farmers' suicides. Food and Civil Supplies Minister C Divakaran was seen taking weak stands on several issues including the efforts to control the spiralling prices of essential commodities and he was obviously struggling to reach with Cooperation Minister G Sudhakaran in the race to meet the situation. Amidst that he also received some bad press coverage in the issue of the transfer of the Supplyco managing director.
The most testing job, somehow, fell on the heads of Revenue Minister KP Rajendran and Forests Minister Benoy Viswam of the CPI, and the party is now realising that despite the fact that it holds the two portfolios directly connected with the Munnar developments, they have no role in the entire matter. Even their own office in the area was pulled down on charges of norms violation.

Even the party's objection to the appointment of the special team for eviction mission in Munnar was rejected outright by the Chief Minister, and it was forced to reverse its earlier stand.