#dnaEdit: The bar brawlers

The violent and indecorous events inside and outside the Kerala Legislative Assembly epitomise the failure of political parties to uphold the spirit of parliamentary democracy even as they swear by it at most times. Such behaviour is not just an affront to the Constitution that binds this fractious country together, but also to the citizenry who cast their prized votes and elect such legislators. For nearly four months now, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government has been fending off corruption charges against one of its constituents, Kerala Congress(M) leader and finance minister KM Mani. Besides allegedly taking bribes to re-open closed bars that were denied licences in the run-up to the state’s prohibition declaration, other allegations of extracting money from jewellers and bakers, by waving the taxation instruments at his disposal, were levelled at Mani. The standoff worsened after the opposition CPM — accused by junior ally CPI and rival BJP of going soft on Mani in the hope of weaning him away from the UDF — realised the discontent prevailing among its supporters over this ambivalence. But kowtowing to the CPM’s demand that Mani, who enjoys the loyalty of Christians from the central Kerala belt, not present the Budget posed several dangers for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

For one, there is wide speculation that Chandy had instigated the bar owners to expose the bribery scandal, to prevent 82-year-old Mani — a longtime aspirant for the chief ministerial seat and the last remaining milestone in his 50-year-long uninterrupted legislative career — from pulling down the UDF government with CPM support. Further, if asked to step down, Mani’s nine-member outfit would have withdrawn support to the UDF government, which is surviving on a slim four-member majority. Moreover, Chandy would also have to dodge questions of the same standards not applying to him, despite closely figuring in the solar scam, which is also refusing to die down. For the CPM, the exigencies of electoral politics and Kerala’s changing socio-economic profile appear to have forced the drastic, dramatic and uncivil acts in the state assembly. Kerala’s Muslim and Christian voters, 44 per cent of the population, have stubbornly refused to desert the UDF. The state’s growing middle class has little sympathy for socialist policies. A resurgent BJP under Narendra Modi is threatening to make inroads and is slowly poaching CPM workers while the Aam Aadmi Party polled 2.6 lakh votes in its Lok Sabha electoral debut. The Lok Sabha polls, which the Congress won narrowly despite the corruption tag and the nationwide drubbing, has also worried the Left no end.

However, the CPM has overplayed its hand in the latest display of hooliganism which had MLAs standing atop the Speaker’s table, toppling the Speaker’s chair, hurling of microphones, and assaulting the hapless watch-and-ward staff. If it was an attempt to summon the CPM’s waning agitational streak, this was certainly not the way to go about it. A more solemn and other symbolic ways to protest could have been chosen. The unprecedented measures adopted by the UDF — Mani  and several legislators camped inside the assembly on Thursday night — had cast the government in an unfavourable light. As expected, the Congress is gloating about Mani successfully presenting the Budget, however truncated and involuble it was, while the CPM claimed success in fulfilling its vow to prevent Mani’s Budget speech. It is a pyrrhic victory for both sides at the expense of the values that those in public life are expected to uphold. The farming sector is again in distress and the state treasury is in perpetual danger of going empty. In times as fraught as these, the Budget should surely have been presented in a sober manner. The shame will take a long time in dying.