THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Left fellow traveller Cherian Philip on Monday got an invitation to rejoin the Congress. The editorial in the party mouthpiece Veekshanam, while citing state Congress chief Mullappally Ramachandran, said Philip should seriously consider returning to the Congress and that it can happen if he decides to apologise for leaving the party.
The editorial also took potshots at CPM’s authoritarian attitude by comparing Philip to that of a “chained monkey”. However, by afternoon, Mullappally reprimanded one of the party’s general secretaries, Jaison Joseph, who is in charge of Veekshanam, for dragging his name into the editorial. Jaison told TNIE that there had been an error in the editorial as the party had not held any talks about bringing Philip back.
“The editorial was written without Mullappally’s permission. It is for the Congress to decide whether Philip should be called back or not,” he said. The editorial appeared two days after Philip, who had been hoping to get a Rajya Sabha berth, wrote on Facebook his decision to focus on writing and come up with the second part of his book ‘Kaal Noottandu’ that was released 25 years ago. In the post, which appeared after CPM nominated journalist and Kairali TV MD John Brittas and V Sivadas to the upper house, Philip said he is planning to write the book, ‘Left and Right’.
Philip, 67, told TNIE that his focus right now was on collecting materials for his book which would take six months. “Writing a book is easy. Collecting the materials is hard. I will reveal my thoughts at an appropriate time,” he said.
Media analyst Sunnykutty Abraham claimed in a news channel that during a recent chat with Philip, the latter told him that he did not contest in the assembly elections as he had got an assurance from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of being nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Philip was the president of the KSU in 1980 and went onto become the Youth Congress vice-president and the state Congress general secretary. When he was denied a seat of his choice in the 2001 assembly polls, he quit and joined the Left camp.