Volte-face on ADB loan proves Left is Right

As per rules the agreement between the Kerala Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), by which the bank will provide a loan for "sustainable development" in the five city municipal corporations of the State, has come into effect, putting Kerala communist parties in the maximum possible bad light.

The story of this loan, started in 2005, has also been a story of communist volte-face and proof of how Right is Left when compared to the actual Right.

Observers do not attach much importance to the opposition to the pact by pocket groups of Maoists and NGOs, as this is not going to serve any purpose now. However, the subject has helped the interest in studies of Communist.

Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who was a fiery opponent of ADB and its programmes to trap Third World countries during his days in the Opposition ten months back, however, is the first man who is now on the receiving end for all attacks from the fire-spitting "voluntary" reformers and splintered hardliner groups.

Novelist Sara Joseph, a former supporter of the traditionalist CPI(M) leader and who leads the formation Anti-ADB Campaign Committee, which has even moved the High Court asking for an interim stay - which has now been turned down - is perhaps the most vocal opponent of Achuthanandan now. It was last Saturday that Sara at a convention in Kochi lambasted all the CPI(M) leaders except Achuthanandan just because the veteran leader had reportedly dissented on the matter of the ADB loan at a Cabinet meet. But when the Chief Minister denied the story of his dissent, he came under Sara's fire. On Tuesday at a protest march, Sara spat venom on VS

The Communist volte-face on ADB loan was not limited to Achuthanandan. CPI(M)'s youth wing, the DYFI, had for five continuous years consistently haunted the Congress-led UDF for its moves for various financial arrangements with the ADB. Kerala had seen protest demonstrations against ADB and the people who wanted to bring it here with its humiliating and trapping conditions on a daily basis. There was even a Communist-led attack on the ADB office in Thiruvananthapuram.

The young comrades had drawn their inspiration from Achuthanandan who had declared that the secretaries who would sign agreement for ADB loan would be beaten up. However, the scene is different now, as the Communists regime has signed the agreement, the DYFI too has changed its track. Its secretary P Sreeramakrishnan appears on TV shows almost everyday saying his group had not opposed ADB loans but the opposition was to the conditions it puts forward. And since the conditions on the loan have changed, Kerala could avail it, he holds.

Whether the conditions have changed or not is a matter for politicians' speeches. The ADB has already said that it does not change its rules for different circumstances, but State ministers and Communist leaders vouch that they were successful in bringing changes in the ADB rules as was desired. Congress leaders say that nothing 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," a former CPI(M) theorist said. "It is not a consideration of altered conditions that has compelled the party to go for the loan. There are other things," he quips.

The CPI is trying to gain the image of the real Communist party in this part of the world, with its seemingly principled positions on all issues, including the ADB loan and the self-financing colleges problem. CPI State secretary Veliyam Bhargavan had from day one opposed the move to take the loan, as its conditions were detrimental to the State's interests. But when the LDF met to discuss the issue the last time, Veliyam voted with the loan-seekers saying if his party dissented it would have forced Local Self-Administration Minister Paloli Muhammadkutty, who ordered the State's Resident Commissioner in Delhi to sign the pact with the ADB, which happened on December 8 last. On Wednesday, Veliyam declared in Mallappuram that for his party, the ADB loan issue was a closed chapter.

The loan agreement is already a reality, and there is no going back on it. Now observers are watching keenly how the money to come from the international agency is going to be utilised on the ground.