What has angered Kerala in particular is the Centre’s unseemly hurry to notify the Kasturirangan-led panel, which has recommended a ban on development activities in 37 per cent of the biologically rich Western Ghats. Compounding the Centre’s ‘offence’ has been its inexplicable refusal to wait for the report of a committee constituted by the Kerala Government to elicit the views of farmers and other stake-holders about the Kasturirangan report and the state government’s demand for major changes in them.

The sense of indignation sweeping the state has already manifested in the form of a total hartal in the districts which will be hit hard by the implementation of the Kasturirangan report like Kozhikode, Wayanad, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Kottayalm and Palakkad.

It goes without saying that the Environment Ministry’s move has put the Congress-led UDF Government in an embarrassing position. In a prompt reaction, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala has signalled the party’s intent to meet President Pranab Mukherjee to convey the state’s displeasure on the Centre’s move. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has also expressed his dismay over the Centre’s decision to go ahead with the notification on the Kasturirangan report without taking the State’s reservations on the issue and ignoring its demand for modifications in the report.

What has caused grave concern for the Congress is the hardening of stance by its ally, the Kerala Congress(Mani), which has made no secret of its move to support the hartal announced by the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) against the Union Ministry’s move.

KC(M) chief and Finance Minister K M Mani’s decision has put the Congress in the state on tenterhooks. That the Mani move has come amid reports of Mani getting closer to the LDF, with the Lok Sabha elections only months away, is highly significant.

It is an open secret that the KC(M) is unhappy about the Congress’s refusal to concede the party’s demands, which include, among others, a berth for KC(M) chief Mani’s son and Kottayam MP, Jose K. Mani in the Union Council of Ministers.

The KC(M) is also all set to seek an additional seat in the Lok Sabha elections besides Kottayam. The demand for the Idukki seat has been pressed hard by the Joseph faction of the KC(M), which had merged itself in the KC(M) after breaking away from the LDF before the last assembly elections. Congress is reluctant to concede the demand for the Idukki seat, which is at present represented by its MP, P T Thomas, a close aide of Oommen Chandy.

The anxiety of the KC(M) over the latest Central move to go ahead with the implementation of the Kasturirangan report is understandable. The KC(M) fears that if the densely populated areas of the Western Ghats, which are mostly cultivated land areas, were declared as ecologically sensitive areas – a major recommendation of both the Kasturirangan and the earlier Madhav Gadgil reports – it would hit hard the farmers in possession of these lands. It is a highly sensitive issue for the KC(M) as these farmers form the backbone of the party’s vote base. The party is simply in no position to approve any decision affecting them adversely.

Needless to say, the Oommen Chandy Government finds itself on the horns of a severe dilemma. If it fails to persuade the Centre to change the move on Kasturirangan report, there is every possibility of the KC(M) cosying up to the LDF. A proposition the Congress cannot view with equanimity given the proximity of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, due early next year.

Oommen Chandy’s contention that the Kasturirangan report merely seeks to prevent granite quarrying, sand mining, setting up of thermal plants, construction of buildings having more than 2-lakh sq ft plinth area and that there is no ban on farmers’ dwellings, farming activities or pursuit of other means of livelihood has failed to pacify the agitated KC(M).

Whatever the denouement, if the Centre does not change its decision, coming days could witness Kerala politics hotting up as never before, putting a big question mark over the beleaguered Chandy Government, already reeling under the impact of the solar scam.(IPA Service)