dna edit: Chandy must go

For nearly a month, Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy has clung to power hoping the solar panel scam will go away. The scam surfaced after a young woman, Saritha Nair, was arrested in early-June following complaints that a couple swindled lakhs of rupees from affluent people, including businessmen and medical doctors, promising to set up solar plants and windmill farms. By mid-June, leaked call-detail records (CDR) of Saritha’s phone numbers revealed that Chandy’s personal secretary and gunman were in constant touch with her.

Further CDR leaks put other state ministers, including Chandy’s trusted lieutenant and home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, and many other Congressmen in a tight spot.

Despite local media in hot pursuit and the opposition CPI(M) leading a typically high-decibel campaign, Chandy has survived. But on Monday, complainant M Sreedharan Nair came on record claiming he met Chandy at the CM’s office in Saritha’s presence. With the first direct allegation of his involvement being raised, Chandy offered to resign but his Cabinet colleagues and party turned it down. Union defence minister AK Antony has deftly evaded comment on Chandy, an indication that the Congress central leadership remains undecided.

Until the latest scandal, Chandy had stood tall in the perpetually problem-ridden coalition government that has ruled with a wafer-thin three-seat majority. His accessibility to the common man through mass-contact programmes has significantly cut red tape, without alienating the bureaucracy, and is a model other state governments should consider following.

But the present crisis has damaged his credibility. His claims that the Kerala Police investigation will proceed without interference is untenable. Chandy should make way like former Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran in 1995, after his office was dragged into the now-farcical ISRO spy scandal, and earn a clean chit.

Karunakaran’s supporters, are barely hiding their glee, as it is widely believed that Chandy pulled the strings and did the factional spadework in 1995. Eighteen years later, the balance in the Congress factional wars has again turned. An uneasy peace, between Chandy’s A-group and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala’s I-group lasting nearly eight years, ended in May when Chandy dashed Ramesh’s hopes of deputy chief ministership and the home ministry portfolio.

The uncovering of the solar scam — to which several A-group bigwigs have been linked — in the immediate aftermath of Ramesh’s disappointment has let loose a whisper campaign. But doubts persist whether Ramesh can lead the UDF’s fragile coalition that has faced barbs for being minority dominated. Even as the Congress worries about Chandy’s future, it is the state that has suffered: governance is at a virtual standstill.