Farcical end to 'Operation Munnar'

Kerala’s LDF Government has once again proved that the basic tenement ‘everybody is equal before the law’ is not applicable to it. Though there have been elements before who have tried to make a mockery of this dictum, nobody had dared to amend it in public until now. The Kerala Government seems determined to set a new precedent in this regard.

Order has been issued from the Revenue Principal Secretary’s office to maintain status quo in the case of encroachments by political parties. In effect, the Government itself is decreeing that if public property is encroached by political parties, it is not encroachment, it is their right! In other words, the law and its upkeeping, applicable to each and every citizen, is not applicable to politicians elected by these same citizens!. Things come to a pretty pass when, with a party and flag just for namesake, anyone can circumvent the law.

Needless to say,Chief Minister Achuthanandan has lost all his credibility -painstakingly built up in the face of non co-operation even from his own party- by being part of this atrocious and biased decision. What Kerala is seeing now is the unconditional surrender and withdrawal of his much trumpeted 'demolition team' before the illegally constructed multistoried commercial palaces built by political parties on encroached land. The Chief Minister has given land encroachment a new definition by directing that encroaching political parties need not be evicted!

Not only party offices, even memorials and martyr altars erected on encroached land have been rendered ‘untouchable’ by this latest order. It symbolizes the plight of this land that a party who prides itself as the wholesale dealers of idealistic politics has no qualms about adopting such a ridiculous stance in an issue on which the whole of Kerala feels very strongly. It is no longer a secret that what forced the Chief Minister to backtrack on his tough and highly popular attitude towards encroachments is the fact that the justifications laid down for evicting the CPI office on encroached land at Munnar would be just as applicable to the neighbouring CPM office. The political parties who obtained Pattayams for essentially commercial land by illegal means-projecting such land as purely agricultural- are fully aware of the benefits of encroachment agriculture and harvest!

It must also be remembered that these are the political parties which stubbornly resist even the BOT (Build, Own and Transfer) system for Highway development despite clearcut directives from the Central Government on the pretext that it is against public interest! This latest decision is quite in line with the policy of withdrawing court cases –even criminal- pending against members of the ruling coalition. What is actually being demolished here is the myth that the Indian Penal Code is equally applicable to all citizens.

It is not enough that justice is done, it must be seen to be done; in other words, the people have to be convinced that justice has been done. This basic tenement has been mercilessly violated here. It was George Orwell who stated that ‘all are equal, some are more equal’. The Left Government has underlined this assertion through their official condonement - even encouragement- of infringement of the law by our greedy politicians.

Taking back Munnar

Read much more about fascinating Kerala, its assets, mysteries, issues,travails.....