Expressing displeasure over the decision of the leadership of Janata Dal (Secular) to oust him from the LDF cabinet, Kerala Water Resources Minister Mathew T Thomas alleged that there had been attempts to malign his reputation by a section of party leaders.
“They found faults with everything I did as a minister and were more vocal than the opposition in criticising me. These people even tried to implicate me in a false case. When their wicked efforts to frame a case against me on false and frivolous charges failed, they tried to drag my family into it. It pained me a lot. Now I realise it was part of a larger conspiracy to force me to relinquish the post. All this drama was unnecessary. People close to me know that I will not hang on to the ministership against the wishes of his party,” he told in an exclusive interview to Manorama.
The 57-year-old, who represents the Thiruvalla assembly constituency, said that he had no plans to split the party or cling to power by resorting to unfair means. “As a public servant, I’m obliged to implement the organisation’s decisions. However, I want to remind those people how the party grew from strength to strength after it was reduced to two seats following the 2009 split.”
Excerpts from the interview:
Was there an understanding regarding rotation of ministerial berth?
I had already made it clear that there was no such power-sharing agreement. But since the party president has claimed that a rotational arrangement had been agreed upon, I don’t want to make further comments.
There are rumours that the leadership turned against you because of your reluctance to mobilise funds for the party…
I have never done that. The general public is well aware of it.
Do you believe the case filed by the housemaid against your wife was part of a conspiracy?
First they told the press that my wife forced the maid to clean shoes. When the media ignored that allegation, they accused her of calling the maid by her caste name.
What should have provoked the servant to come up with such allegations?
She was employed on daily wage basis. We terminated her from the job after she was caught stealing on CCTV camera. The complaint, filed after several months, must have had vested interest behind it.
During general discussions on the Budget, some JD (S) leaders had alleged that the Department of Water Resources was non-functional…
I had replied to them at the assembly itself.
What were the challenges confronted by the party after the split?
We could tide over the crisis resulted in from the split in 2009 when some prominent leaders including M P Veerendrakumar left the party. We had only two MLAs then - Jose Thettayil and myself. Now we have three legislators. We could also bring back leaders such as A Neelalohithadasan Nadar, K Krishnankutty, and C K Nanu to the party fold.
Will you be disheartened to sit in the back row in the assembly?
I have never enjoyed being in the limelight. To be honest, I had no desire to be a minister. When I got the chance, I never tried to cling to it. Positions don’t matter to me at all. When I quit as the Transport Minister from the VS Achuthanandan ministry, your headline was ‘Seat lost, minister alights midway’. I had loved it. If your tomorrow’s heading is ‘Water minister in deep water,” I will enjoy that too.
