BackVS Achuthanandan to be appointed as chief of administrative reforms panel
The Kerala govt decides VS Achuthanandan will be chairman of an administrative reforms committee with the rank of a cabinet member
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Bengaluru: What official role will V.S. Achuthanandan, the 92-year-old mass leader who is thought to be a rival of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, have in the new Left Front government in Kerala?
The question that was widely debated since the new Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government assumed office in May has finally been answered.
Achuthanandan will be chairman of an administrative reforms committee with the rank of a cabinet member, the Kerala cabinet decided on Wednesday, according to a party leader who was privy to the discussions.
Achuthanandan, a grass roots leader, was the face of the Left Front’s election campaigning in the sweltering summer. In the end, the Left Democratic Front secured 90 out of the 140 seats in the assembly, decimating the rival Congress-led United Democratic Front to 47 just seats.
But once the elections were over, party general secretary Sitaram Yechury credited the ageing leader’s mass popularity but denied him the chief minister’s chair reportedly citing his age.
“Achuthanandan is the Fidel Castro for the Kerala revolutionary movement ... and like Fidel, will continue to advise, guide and inspire," Yechury told reporters in May, while naming Vijayan as the CM.
This prompted speculation on the alleged frosty ties between Achuthanandan and Vijayan affecting the government. In the last two weeks, Achuthanandan has come out strongly against two political appointments of Vijayan—senior advocate M.K. Damodaran as legal advisor and Harvard economist Gita Gopinath as financial advisor.
A report by Malayalam channel Manorama News said the state leadership offered Achuthanandan a cabinet rank but the veteran leader also asked to be re-inducted into the party state committee, which the leadership opposed.
Achuthanandan was dropped from the CPM’s state and central committees last year which meant the former chief minister and probably the senior most Communist leader in India, was, at least technically, reduced to having the powers of a state legislator.
CPM stalwarts like E. M. S. Namboothiripad and E. K. Nayanar had headed the reforms panel post in the past. Earlier, the government passed a bill to amend the law related to the administrative reforms commission in order to give Achuthanandan the chairman’s post, PTI reported on 19 July.
Under Achuthanandan, this will be the fourth administrative reforms committee in Kerala. The three-member panel to be constituted will also have former chief secretaries Neela Gangadharan and C.P. Nair, said the party leader quoted above.
However, a public interest litigation is pending before the High Court which questions the way the government amended the related law.
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