Kerala FM Thomas Isaac on KIIFB: ‘BJP doesn’t frighten us, ED can arrest me if it wants, I will not take bail’

A: It’s very important for CPM in Kerala and in India. There’s a jinx in the state’s politics that every 5 years, there’s a change in government. It’s like an iron law. But the spell has already been broken. In local body polls just before the Assembly elections, usually the ruling government gets a setback. That’s also a part of the iron law. But this time, that law has already been broken. Despite six months of a slandering campaign against the state government, the Left had a resounding victory. That’s a remarkable change in the pattern and so we expect something similar to happen in the Assembly election too. The election is important for many reasons, most importantly for political reasons. Kerala would continue to be a Left base for Indian radical political forces where we think we will be able to realize not just alternative politics but alternative economics too. It would have an immediate impact not just on the next 5 years but also the future. The main propaganda of the Congress has been, particularly with respect to minorities, ‘If you don’t vote for us, our rank and file will desert towards the BJP.’ That has been a way of blackmailing the minorities in Kerala. But everybody’s not going to leave the UDF, Kerala’s too secular for that. But there would be an erosion from UDF ranks so that UDF is not going to be an alternative political force in Kerala. At the same time, that wouldn’t mean the BJP will become an alternative political force here because the social composition of Kerala is such that unless and until a major minority community decides to ally with BJP, it has no chance of ever becoming a ruling party in the state. The Hindu community here is too secular, it’s renaissance traditions are based upon secular values. The ideal of Kerala renaissance is that it doesn’t matter which religion you belong to as long as you are a good human being. That’s the ideal put forward by (social reformer) Sree Narayana Guru. So if a party says if you have to be a good human being, you have to be a Hindu, it’s not going to go down well in the Hindu community. This would mean, the Left will continue to rule not just for the next 5 years, but there’s the possibility of extending it for 5-10 years. And that Left bastion will be the base on which we march forward in India. For the Left’s future in India, Kerala elections are important.

Q. Many would say after winning the panchayat elections, the LDF has become over-confident. Will there be a repeat of 2011 when the LDF lost out to the UDF by just a few seats?

A: You are right that we are very confident. For the simple reason, there couldn’t be a worse time than the time of the local body elections. The gold smuggling case and the kind of concocted media campaign against government figures. There was a smuggling attempt and one of our government’s principal secretaries was too close with the woman who was a key figure in the smuggling. But if you take a look at the total smuggling of gold in India, this would be a miniscule of the smuggled gold. It was blown out of proportion, stories were built to malign and slander the government. This went on for six months in Kerala where the media provided juicy stories to be told and retold in a lockdown period when people are all inside at home, watching television. This couldn’t have been a worse period and (the win in local body elections) boosted our confidence. The second aspect was that we had an exit strategy from the lockdown which is in the form of 100 days of development programme. It is very difficult to push the govt departments from the lethargy created by six-seven months of the lockdown. But we put measurable targets for 100 days for every sector and it was a resounding success. An example, we said we will create 50,000 jobs. Everybody said it was too ambitious a target to do in 100 days. The (jobs) portal was created where all details was uploaded and the total employment came to 117,000. This was a tremendous sense of achievement and things started moving. Around Rs 10,000 crore of KIIFB projects were completed. Kerala was good in welfare, education, healthcare, etc, but when it comes to implementing projects like this, the track-record of Kerala in the past was very poor. It has changed. Look at the roads in my constituency. If some road is bad, it is being constructed. We are not nervous about the outcome of the election. We are going to win it.

Q. If the Congress becomes weak in Kerala, is that an opportunity for the BJP to take its space and become the principal opposition to the Left?

A: Despite having India’s largest RSS cadre here in Kerala, for the last four decades, BJP hasn’t been able to do well here. Now they are using their monetary methods. Every disgruntled element from other political parties is going there, but still they are not able to make a headway. I think they will be stuck at 15%-16% of the vote-share. This time also, it will be that. It can happen that in one particular constituency, for making use of certain concrete situations, they may win that seat. This time, they will be struggling to keep their existing seat. Congress last time put up an irrelevant politician in Nemom and their vote-share declined from 60,000 to 12,000 votes and that’s the reason for BJP’s victory. The Left got more votes and still lost. Congress is thinking of putting up a serious candidate. If the UDF gets back its votes, the Left will win that seat. I dont think BJP will become a principal opposition. They will be perceived as such that they cannot become the ruling power. UDF will continue (in opposition), but will lose the power to challenge the Left. UDF still has a big support among Muslim voters along with a major chunk of Christian voters and a little bit of the upper-caste Hindu votes. That would continue to be the scenario. There will be erosion in their ranks. They would have lost their bite and they will continue to be the main opposition. And there must be an opposition in Kerala. I dont want a situation where the Left is in complete control. BJP is not going to be the main oppositon in Kerala for the simple fact that it is against the ethos of Kerala. It is ingrained in the mindset of people with secular values. Even upper-caste organisations who are vocally anti-Left wouldn’t go with BJP. In fact they resist the BJP from capturing their units and so on, it’s a greatness of our secular traditions.

Q. This time, the CPM has set a strict two-term only rule for sitting MLAs. There have been mixed reactions to the rule. What’s your position?

A: I’m a four-time MLA and a two-time minister. Stepping back is not going to be the end of my government policy-making and implementation. There are ways to do it without being a minister. It’s very important to send a message to people saying, ‘We are a responsible party. We are not going to allow an environment which can be conducive for political degeneration that would come from being continuously in power.’ Initially, people have been surprised. We are all ministers who have performed and therefore there has been resentment in some places. That’s because they would compare the new incumbent with us who have performed well. This is going to change when UDF candidates come into the fray. Then the comparison wouldn’t be with past candidates, but more with UDf candidates. Politics will come into play and this will all evaporate.

Q. But you’re not just any ordinary candidate. You were the finance minister for two terms and people identify you as the face of KIIFB. Wasn’t it important for people like you to stay on?

A: I will definitely play a role in KIIFB, K-DISK and many other development programmes that the party may decide. I will try to continue that way. My greatest political accomplishment has been the democratic decentralisation in Kerala. I dont think there has been any time in my life when i was much involved in this programme. I was not a minister even. I was just one of the planning board members. So it doesnt matter if you are a minister or not. I am certain the party will take an approriate decision. When i will say this to the people, it carries conviction.

Q. Out of the 85 candidates on CPM list, there are only 12 women, which is just about 14%. Dont you think it’s too less?

A: Yes, we should have had more women candidates. This criticism will have to be kept in mind by us for the future. Now, nothing can be done about it. We will do better in future.

Q. Critics of the LDF government say the state is sitting on a large pile of debt, thanks to the money raised through KIIFB from outside the country. Both the CAG and the Enforcement Directorate have raised questions about the functioning and accounting of KIIFB. How do you respond?

A: There are two types of debts. One, government direct debts which no state government can pile up because it is governed by FRBM law and you need permission of the Centre. Therefore, Kerala is not more indebted than any other state…if you take Nirmala Sitharaman’s latest budget, where is this Rs 20 lakh crores proposed for NHAI going to come from? It’s a liability incurred from outside the budget. They have off-budget borrowing. More than Rs 1 lakh crores last year which schemes provided in the budget are funded through outside the budget which does not enter into the accounts. So these are common practices. It is very common and accepted to have annuity programmes particularly when you are building things which are not revenue-bearing. You go for annuity programme by which you pay the liabilities spread over 10 or 20 years and the interest during the period is structured into the total liability. Can you tell me a single instance where annuity programme total future liability is put as borrowing of any government, state or Centre? It’s not. The state is directly liable to make payment over the period. KIIFB is a kind of expanded annuity programme where we have entrusted KIIFB board to construct a large number of projects, only infra projects. And then we have legislated an annuity in the form of share or taxes so that it’s a growing annuity. So this is the assured income by law to this institution and this institution can draw its future assets in terms of payments from governments. There would be 25%-30% revenue earning projects in the funding. They can equally plot a curve of liabilities in terms of payments to contractors, payment to the money they borrow. This asset liability matching will be very meticulously followed. There’s an elaborate software to do that. They are mandated to ensure that the future liability at any point of time is below the asset curve. We have a fund trustee board with eminent people like former CAG Vinod Rai and a fiercely independent director board. It will have equal number of independent directors and senior chairpersons of banks. They would never permit the liabilities above the asset curve. This is the business model of KIIFB. We are also behaving responsibly. I have announced Rs 50,000 crore worth projects in the first 2 years of the budget. Nobody believed it was going to happen. Nirmala Sitharaman comes to Kerala and asks what’s this KIIFB budget. She doesn’t understand. What is the implication? Everybody agrees that we need better schools. Nearly 7 lakh students have joined the public education system in Kerala over the last 5 years. The percentage of people who are using the public health system incrased from 38% to 48% on the eve of the Covid crisis. We need electricity and without a new transmission line, Kerala cannot progress. But Rs 10,000 crores is required. The central government says we have to pay 25% of the cost of NH land acquisition. Yes, we are meeting it. We need these projects which are important for state’s development. Something which would have taken 25 years, we have compressed the future into the next 2-3 years. Kerala’s infrastructure would be transformed. This is a major development experiment which cannot be played around with your conservative fiscal measures and theories. Every state needs to have a fiscal face to pursue their autonomous vision of development. Kerala is different and today having achieved our social-sector well-being, we want to create infrastructure so that our economic base is transformed. We have chosen a perfectly legal way of mobilising resources. It’s so simple and elegant, Rs 60,000 crores worth projects are on the way and with due diligence. We have set up a oversight mechanism which has no comparison. Not a single case of corruption within KIIFB projects has been reported. It’s a fiercely independent professional board which can go to international money markets and go to masala bonds and raise money there.

Q. But in connection to the ED notices, there are reports that even you may be called in for questioning since you are the vice-chairman of KIIFB. Will you cooperate?

A: No, I will not cooperate with ED. They can arrest me if they want. If they arrest me, I will not take bail. Let’s see what happens. They’re saying, ‘you are not entitled to issue masala bonds. Who are they to investigate? Let the Reserve Bank investigate. The Reserve Bank gave an NOC. This is a cooked-up story made up for elections. If there are serving officers, they will comply, but others wont. We are going to resist it. I am not going to respond (if a notice comes). I will say I’m busy till the elections. After that, if they want to arrest me, I will not take bail. Let’s see how the people of Kerala are going to react. I dare the ED to do that.

Q. So you’re ready to get into a direct confrontation with the agencies?

A: If they want direct confrontation on this matter, they will have it. BJP doesnt frighten us, there may be states where ED, Customs (file cases) and people get frightened, we are not. There is nothing to hide.

Q. Now, as a state finance minister, you have dealt with both Congress and BJP governments at the Centre. What have been your experiences?

A: I must be very honest. We have been very critical of centralisation trends in the Congress government. After all, they imposed the Emergency in India. But what BJP is doing is nothing that can be compared. They are very systematically conquering through devious means every democratic institution in India, bringing it under the control. Be it military, judiciary, the election commission, educational institutions. Two years back, I was faculty at one of the autonomous research institutes in Kerala. An academic team comes (from outside the state) and they asked, is Arthashastra being taught in the institute? Jokers. What surprised me was somebody sitting in Delhi or Nagpur is thinking of how to take over a research institution in Kerala. It was frightening. I am critical of the Congress too, but this (BJP) is a game of a different order altogether. But even within BJP, persons do matter. I was party to the GST council under Nirmala Sitharaman and Arun Jaitley. If Jaitley was able to to bring together everyone of different political positions, like CPM which is against GST itself, he had a method to accommodate various people…even within the BJP regime, the experiences have been different. Increasingly it has been trending to a system where the old responses are governed by the majority in parliament. You can take any decision you want. Being ruled by majoritarian law is very, very dangerous.

Q. In 2019 LS polls, the CPM stand on Sabarimala and the violent incidents the year before were seen to have played a major role in the drubbing of your party. You won just 1 out of 20 seats. In the Assembly elections, the Congress has raised it once again. What is your stand on the issue?

A: The BJP and the Congress may like to revive the old Sabarimala issue the same way, but I don’t think it’s going to be effective. Let the Supreme Court in its wisdom take a decision and we will see. I don’t want to speculate right now, which is what the Congress and the BJP wants. We are not going to take the bait.

Q. Finally, this is the first major election in four or five decades in which senior CPM leader and former CM VS Achuthanandan will not be contesting or campaigning. Is the CPM missing him?

A: Definitely, the absence of leaders like VS is a loss. They are leaders with a lot of respect among the poor in Kerala and who can rally the people. But there is a law of nature. Everybody ages. But we will continue to use his legacy in our campaign.