Oommen Chandy has left the arena forever. A legislator retaining the same seat in the assembly for 53 years is an unbreakable political record. But Oommen Chandy will be known in the annals of history for his politics of compassion and personal care for the people.
Access to the seats of power is the worst difficulty in democracies all over the world. The voters are kept far away from the elected representatives in power, and a few members of the coterie could approach them. The new young Congress legislators elected in the 1970 assembly elections in Kerala under the leadership of AK Antony tread a different path in Kerala politics and reached the last person at their doorstep.
Though AK Antony himself didn’t practice this method of approaching people, his trusted lieutenant Oommen Chandy mastered this method and became an icon of people’s politics. Slowly, Oommen Chandy grew from the student-leader-politician to the full-fledged political leader, manoeuvring the gears and breaks of the polity of Kerala in the late 1970s.
In 1980, the Antony Congress allied with the CPM and CPI to form the Left Democratic Front (LDF), which swept the elections with a 53% vote share. But Oommen Chandy was not ready to become a minister in the first LDF government led by EK Nayanar. He had the acumen to assess the life of the LDF front and its imminent fall.
After the fall of the Nayanar government in 1982, Oommen Chandy emerged as one of the most important and powerful leaders of Kerala politics, and for the next 40 years he was calling the shots, either sitting in power or on the opposition benches. In the UDF government formations of 1982, 1991, 2001, and 2011, Oommen Chandy played a pivotal role and often was the point man in policy making.
Oommen Chandy was a fighter in his party too. During the 1991–96 tenure of the UDF government, K. Karunakaran was replaced by AK Antony as the Chief Minister in the last spell. Oommen Chandy was the chief architect of that political operation. During the 2001–06 AK Antony regime, Oommen Chandy was the Convenor of the ruling UDF front and had to see that the policies of the front were accomplished by the government.
From 1995 on, he occupied the captain’s seat and became the chief minister or opposition leader for the next 21 years! In 2011, he led a government with 72 seats out of 140 in a meticulous manner and could see that several mega projects got completed or kicked off. The Kochi metro, Kannur Airport, and Vizhinjam Port are examples.
As the chief Minister, unlike many other counterparts, he could talk to several lakhs of people personally. He distributed free rice through ration shops and could help patients with severe diseases like cancer, heart attacks, liver diseases, and kidney failures through an innovative scheme called Karunya, with the help of his trusted lieutenant and finance minister, K M Mani.
The funds for this scheme were raised through a lottery. However, Oommen Chandy had to face several false allegations from the opposition. 'He was more sinned against than sinning.'
He had to undergo severe stress during the last phase of his long tenure due to the beatings below the belt from the opponents. He was a leader who never enjoyed leisure or rest. Hard work was his leisure. But today he is entering the phase of infinite rest.
Let him rest in peace.
(The author is the UDF secretary, and a former member of the Planning Board)