THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sudden turn of events in the Consumerfed drama on stage was not quite unexpected. The disbanding of the entire director board a day after Co-operation Minister C N Balakrishnan ordered an internal inquiry, it is reliably learnt, was out of a compulsion that if otherwise, the government would be at a crossroads politically, and it would also leave the main A-I Congress factions in hot waters.
Close on the heels of a CBI inquiry ordered by the High Court into the alleged murky affairs in the state-owned Cashew Development Corporation, the scope of similar interventions in the Consumerfed also was very bright as there was no dearth of damning inquiry reports and a volley of allegations. If Congress factionalism has peppered the wrangling and malfunctioning in the Consumerfed for long under the reigning UDF government, the Augean Stables of corruption in the cooperative giant was a continuing saga under successive governments.
The only dispute was the volume of corruption under any given dispensation.
Like in the bar issue, it is believed that the trump card to disband the director board in toto was flashed by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy itself. Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala also went on record on Friday, stating that there would be no compromise on corruption, present or past, in the Consumerfed.
“We’re going to order a comprehensive probe involving all, including the key officials who are trying to be saints now. And Congress considerations will not come in the way at all while fixing the corrupt and guilty,” Ramesh told ‘Express.’
KPCC president V M Sudheeran had given a letter to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, seeking the removal of Joy Thomas from the chairman post, for which, he had banked on a report of Satheesan Pacheni, KPCC general secretary and Consumerfed director board member.
Sudheeran had placed the issue in front of the Congress high command also. Once an ardent ‘A’ faction ideologue, Satheesan has become a votary of Sudheeran now. A new round of faction war is thus on the cards, while the ‘I’ and ‘A’ factions have joined hands to save themselves and the government.