THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had demonstrated a tough posture over the appointment row until recently, seems to have finally learnt a valuable lesson from his predecessor Oommen Chandy. Political observers draw a parallel between the last leg of the previous UDF government under Chandy and the current Pinarayi regime. There seems to be a striking similarity between both, as the ongoing political tussle over regularisation of temporary employees in the final lap of the government has struck a chord with the masses.
It was a slew of last-minute drastic decisions by the Chandy cabinet that had led to large-scale opposition against the then UDF government. “Had Oommen Chandy kept away from the last-minute controversial cabinet decisions, the UDF would have won at least 10 more seats. It seems the Pinarayi cabinet too was headed the same way,” pointed out a top bureaucrat.
Realising its political potential, Opposition UDF has been royally cashing in on the appointment row. Hostile remarks by senior CPM leaders including secretary in-charge A Vijayaraghavan and some ministers have provided more political mileage to the UDF. Pinarayi has realised the UDF strategy, albeit a bit late, and decided to put on hold the process of regularising temporary appointments.
Left observers feel that the hostile response by CPM leaders aggravated the matter. The DYFI has been taking an almost criminal approach on the issue. Being a Left government, they should have taken a favourable approach towards the rank-holders, felt N M Pearson.
“The Left failed to adopt a humanitarian approach in the initial stage. With elections coming up, they seem to have realised this mistake at least now and are taking corrective steps. If Pinarayi succeeds in learning a lesson from Chandy’s past mistakes, that would definitely help the Left in the polls,” said Pearson.It seems the Left hasn’t learnt lessons from history, said political observer J Prabhash.
“The Left was late in realising its mistake. Of course, they have now done something, which is better late than never. However by the time they realised it, the damage has already been done. Had they learnt lessons from the Chandy experience, they wouldn’t have adopted such a move,” said Prabhash.
He further pointed out that the whole situation was aggravated by lack of response on the part of Pinarayi and the kind of insensitive response by feeder organisations and ministers. “It’s exactly what the BJP has been doing at the Centre. There’s a striking parallel between the way BJP is dealing with agitation for various causes and how the Left handled the ongoing rank-holders’ strike,” he added.The ultimate fallout of the appointment row will be evident only once the election results are in.