Opinion Kerala Congress directive to party leaders on addressing a CPM meet shows it in unflattering light

The directive of the Congress leadership in Kerala to its leaders against speaking at seminars organised as part of the CPM party conference in the state next month is a churlish step that shows the party in poor light. In its best version, the Congress prides itself on being a centrist outfit that upholds the ideals of free speech and the spirit of dialogue. Its diktat to former Union minister K V Thomas and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor gives a lie to that claim, or boast.

Congress state chief K Sudhakaran, who issued the directive, has said that party leaders must not be seen on CPM platforms at a time when the latter, which heads the government in Kerala, is pursuing “anti-people policies”, particularly the controversial semi-high-speed railway project. He has threatened disciplinary action against those who refuse to heed the leadership’s order. Tharoor has been invited by the CPM to speak on challenges facing secularism whereas Thomas was asked to address a session on Centre-state relations. Both leaders are eminently qualified for the tasks assigned to them — Tharoor has written extensively on the idea and practice of secularism and its legacy in India while Thomas headed important parliamentary panels such as the Public Accounts Committee in the course of multiple terms in the Lok Sabha. The Congress and the CPM — bitter rivals in Kerala, but electoral allies in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — profess and project similar views on both secularism and Centre-state relations, which their leaders spell out on national platforms regularly. Relations between the two parties in the state have deteriorated in recent times, with top leaders stooping to name-calling and amusing their respective cadres by recalling violent encounters from college days. But it is a first for the state when a PCC chief bans even intellectual engagement with the CPM. In fact, the presence of Tharoor and Thomas at the CPM party conference would not only deepen the deliberations but also foster a much-needed dialogue in a polarising time.

Advertisement

Ever since his appointment as PCC chief, Sudhakaran has been focused on transforming the Congress from a mass party to a cadre-centric outfit, a sort of mirror image of the CPM. His insistence on breaking all contact with rivals too stems from a notion that the Congress needs to be more aggressive in its pursuit of office, and that it must not leave any opportunity to frame the rival as an enemy. This is an impoverished notion which only makes the Congress look more insecure and ill-tempered while further shrinking spaces of public discourse.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on March 22, 2022 under the title ‘Ill-tempered party’.