Reacting to VS’s sensational interview to a Malayalam TV channel wherein he raked up the infamous Lavalin case in which Vijayan is an accused, CPI state secretary Panniyan Ravindran has described as unfortunate and untimely VS’s remarks against Pinarayi.

Significantly, Ravindran has avoided any comment on the content of the Achuthanandan interview. He has only frowned upon its timing. It has come at a time when the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government is facing a serious crisis triggered by the Nair Service Society’s (NSS) fierce onslaught, he added.

Instead of exploiting the acute discomfiture of the Congress and the UDF Government, Achuthanandan’s interview has deprived the Left Democratic Front (LDF) of an opportunity to extract political mileage out of the Congress’s travails, the CPI leader felt.

Leader of the CPI Legislature Party in the State Assembly C Divakaran had also voiced concern at the ongoing VS-Vijayan war of words a few days back. The CPI(M)’s internal problems could have an adverse effect on the LDF’s political campaign against the UDF, he had pointed out, adding that the party should iron out the internal differences in the interest of left unity.

The Kerala CPI had voiced its reservations about the unilateral agitations launched by the CPI(M) as well. Appropriate lessons should be learnt from the failure of the two recently-launched agitations by pro-left government employees and the one demanding land for the landless, the party feels. Obviously the CPI believes the agitations could have been more effective had they been launched in coordination with the CPI and the RSP.

The RSP, too, shares the CPI’s reservations on the lack of coordination in the LDF. The RSP leaders have time and again expressed their dismay at the tendency of the CPI(M) to launch agitations without consulting the party’s allies.

Meanwhile, an unconcerned CPI(M) has again signalled its intent to intensify agitations against the UDF Government’s continued witch-hunt of the employees who went on strike in support of their legitimate demand for scrapping the contributory pension scheme. The CPI(M)’s stern warning came in a statement issued by party’s state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. (IPA)