Bring back decorum in Kerala politics
Among many things, 2023 will be remembered in Kerala as the year the state’s politics hit an all-time low. It was the year when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan came down from being a powerful administrator to a mere party leader. It was also a year when the CPM and its feeder organisations forgot that they were the ruling party and were expected to behave responsibly. Instead, they took to violence to assert supremacy, which was quite unbecoming for a ruling front.
It was also the year when the opposition Congress party exposed its internal weakness like never before when its top leaders—KPCC president K Sudhakaran and leader of opposition V D Satheeshan—fought publicly for a microphone and made themselves and their party a laughing stock. It was also the year the Youth Congress state unit got mired in a fake ID case, putting a question mark on the credibility of the party’s new-generation leaders. The state BJP unit avoided such public impropriety, but its most popular leader, actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, got caught in a controversy for allegedly misbehaving with a woman journalist.
It was also a year when Governor Arif Mohammed Khan dived into state politics and locked horns with the state government on all possible occasions. The state government finally had to approach the Supreme Court against Khan as he sat on bills—even ones passed by the previous government. It was the year the relationship between the Union government and the state government hit an all-time low.
Sparring over central allocations almost became a norm, with state and Union ministers accusing each other of fund distribution. While the chief minister and other ministers blamed the Union government for the state’s abysmal financial condition, Union ministers including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman insisted that if there were any delays, it was because the state had not submitted proper paperwork. Regardless of who is correct on this, the fact is that it is federalism that took a hit.
The coming year is an election year. As we know, it is a time when tempers run high and politics falls low. As 2023 is coming to an end, one can only hope against hope that the basic decorum and integrity expected of politicians will be protected by all involved. A deeply political state like Kerala deserves that.