Thiruvananthauram: Perhaps no other day would have felt as lonely as June 13 to V M Sudheeran. It was on this day the former KPCC president called a press conference and blasted top Congress leaders for giving him a tough time as KPCC president.
Had he erected a stage in the corner of a large public ground and spoken for hours to empty chairs, he might have felt better. At least, there would have been the whistling of a cool breeze that played around lazily.
After this press conference, which was covered live by news channels, there was an instinctual rush of blood. But it subsided the moment it rose, as if the angry had suddenly found their anger foolish, and then there was dead silence. Not a single Congress leader, not even a small fry, responded. Sudheeran was neither justified nor denounced. The KPCC leadership did not even pull him up for violating the ban on airing dissent in public. It was as if he did not exist.
At that point, like some shocking twist in a thriller, the truth was revealed: Sudheeran has turned into a political ghost. For the Congress party, its former president was dead and gone.
His resignation from the UDF High-Power Committee, therefore, was as inevitable as the eventual fall of a leaf that had long before turned stiff on its branch. This was a stalwart who in the late eighties had looked the mighty K Karunakaran in the eye, and had refused to blink.
Test of strength
Sudheeran had planned the June 13 presser as a test to measure his standing in the party. A couple of days ago on June 11 it looked as if he had caught the imagination of the party rank and file, like in the eighties when he took on Karunakaran or in 2009 when he refused to enter the electoral field saying the younger lot should be given chances. He bristled with anger at the UDF decision to unconditionally gift its lone Rajya Sabha seat to Jose K Mani of Kerala Congress (Mani).
The loss of the Rajya Sabha seat had deeply disturbed the party rank and file. There was resentment that the decision was taken arbitrarily, without consulting the political affairs committee. Sudheeran, it was felt, had tapped into this disillusionment. His revolt had even forced the KPCC president M M Hassan to publicly promise that such sensitive issues would be first discussed with the PAC.
Third force debacle
Through the presser, Sudheeran wanted a confirmation of his perceived status as the third force in the party. Being a former A Group stalwart, he was looking to draw disgruntled A Group members to his fold. Sudheeran was especially critical of Oommen Chandy, whom he had earlier hailed as his leader. He called Chandy jealous, dictatorial and corrupt. He even said Chandy did things according to his whims, and behind the High Command's back. He went full throttle. Not even Chandy's detractors were amused.
Even the High Command, which had in 2014 anointed him KPCC president brashly overriding the objections of senior state leaders, was cold. It was a virtual snub for Sudheeran when it elevated Oommen Chandy, the man he accused of betraying the High Command, to the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body of the party. Sudheeran, a former KPCC president who painted himself as the martyr of Congress infighting, was not even accommodated in the AICC.
A smart and experienced politician that he is, Sudheeran should have read the writing on the wall. During the KPCC executive meet, which he had walked out of to conduct the June 13 press meet, some young Congress leaders had accused him of destroying the party, held him responsible for the thrashing it suffered at the hustings. Then, too, no one was there to come to Sudheeran's aid.
Hero or traitor
The general perception is that Sudheeran had lost the plot the moment he took on the liquor barons. This should have made him heroic. But strangely, Congressmen, irrespective of group affiliations, see him as a renegade. The feedback from Congress workers, in its essence, was this: It is good to fight corruption, but leaders also have the responsibility to find the resources needed to run the party machinery. Sudheeran found it tough to run even the KPCC office, which required at least Rs 40 lakh monthly - as fuel, power and other costs, and salaries - for its smooth functioning.
Sudheeran as KPCC president wanted 418 bars branded “unhygienic” to be shut. The then chief minister Oommen Chandy wanted a compromise. He said licenses would be renewed if the owners of these 418 unhygienic bars could improve the condition of these bars. Many had even started renovation. But Sudheeran was uncompromising. He even hurled bribery charges against the then excise minister K Babu, a staunch Chandy loyalist. The upshot: Chandy went ahead and closed all the 730 bars in the state.
Party is Big Boss
The Congress, which had heavily depended on the funds of bar owners, suddenly found its coffers drying up. The Congress faced the 2016 Assembly elections with virtually nothing left in its kitty, except the scarce election resources the AICC transfers to each state. Ditto was the case during the Chengannur byelections.
Sudheeran had consistently taken principled positions, but was never pragmatic. But, as the average Congressman love to say, no principle is bigger than the party. An axiom, Congressmen feel, Sudheeran has never imbibed.
