As the 100-day time-frame for the action plan, which Chief Minister Oommen Chandy heading a weak Congress-led UDF coalition likes to call revolutionary, ends on Monday, critics are alleging that the revolution is limited to spending money from the exchequer on ads published on it through TV channels and newspapers by the Public Relations Department.
After spending most of its energy on CPI(M)-baiting and for settling disputes over ministerial positions within the coalition, the Government was forced to announce as many as 32 of the so-called path-breaking programmes in the last two weeks. “This haste itself points to the insincerity of the Government,” said a sociologist with the Kottayam-based MG University.
The only revolutionary programme among all of them is perhaps the Chief Minister’s move to claim transparency by webcasting his office functions live and allowing people to lodge complaints with it 24X7. But its charm ended the very first day as lakhs of calls got stuck in the communications traffic jam.
The failure of the 100-day action plan to be efficient was so baffling to Chandy himself that he had to storm out of a formal television interview halfway through because the interviewer questioned the efficiency of the package for settlement of land disputes in the Adivasi region of Attappady in Palakkad district.
“I am trying to settle disputes. But you people are only interested in sparking off controversies. I am not available for that,” he said before getting up and walking out of the interview. The issue in discussion was that of returning to the Adivasis their land where a corporate wind energy company had installed windmills.
“That shows how defenseless in and undiplomatic he is on most of the burning issues,” said economist-sociologist KPS Nath. “The 100-day programme is just a public relations stunt and Chandy himself might not be very hopeful of its success. I think he should concentrate on small things instead of making big, unworkable declarations,” he added.
The Government announced more than 110 programmes as part of the 100-day action plan and it claims that most of them have already been completed but statistics show otherwise. It has not been even able to start programmes like cash award for whistleblowers on graft, new insurance scheme for victims of road accidents and flawless waste management.
Even UDF leaders themselves are not satisfied with the progress of the programmes. They admit that the Chandy Government had not been able to adopt a stand different from that of the former LDF Government on issues like land grabbing and Adivasi welfare while the Opposition alleges that Chandy is doing nothing but taking credit of schemes it had initiated while in power.
Critics are alleging that the Chandy Government is spending most of its time on trying to trap Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan and his son VA Arunkumar and save Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty and other Ministers trapped in serious cases and scandals including corruption and sex abuse.
“Chandy cannot successfully complete his five-year term with mere gimmicks. He himself is in the eye of a storm over the palmolein import scam while most of his colleagues are facing serious charges. He is a Christian who must know the value of the saying, charity begins at home,” said a senior member of the Pradesh Congress Committee.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
