The PSC debate in Kerala gets louder as Congress launches video war against CPM

The opposition Congress in Kerala appears to be keen on making the plight of the government job aspirants in the state a major poll plank in the upcoming local body and assembly elections.

In an attempt to keep the controversy over the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) appointments alive, the Congress has released a video challenging the CPM-led government's stand.

In the video, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary Mathew Kuzhalnadan encounters the arguments made by CPM leader M B Rajesh in an earlier video titled 'True Story'.

Rajesh, in his video, had attempted to prove the opposition's allegations about the undeclared recruitment freeze in the state. Rajesh made the video as part of the party's attempts to bust what they termed 'the false propaganda by the opposition and a section of media against the government.'

Kuzhalnadan, in his counter video titled 'The Truth in the True Story', provides data and figures to challenge Rajesh's arguments.

Kuzhalnadan first tries to oppose Rajesh's claim about the LDF government making more appointments than he previous UDF government. Rajesh, in what looks like a reasonable comparison, had listed the appointments made during the first four years of the two governments. According to him, the LDF made 1,33,132 appointments in the first four years as against the UDF's 1,23,104.

Kuzhalnadan challenges this on two accounts.

First, he says Rajesh has presented the number of advice for appointment issued by the government as appointments.

All those who were issued the advices may not have taken up the jobs for various reasons. Kuzhalnadan said the LDF government has made the procedure to relinquish an appointment complicated leading to a significant fall in the number of people opting out of a posting.

“If a person who is already appointed to a post is included in another rank list, she could have relinquished the new posting with an affidavit prepared on a white paper earlier. Now, the LDF government has made the procedure complicated and expensive,” he said.

Kuzhalnadan also presents the number of total appointments done during the five years of Oommen Chandy-led UDF government. Citing a reply given by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Assembly, Kuzhalnadan said the UDF government had done 1,54,238 appointments.

“Apart from this, the UDF government also made 10,000 appointments from the teachers package, 2,799 in differently abled category and regularised the appointments of 3,000 KSRTC employees. As many as 108 people were appointed in the sports quota as well,” he said.

Another major contention Kuzhalnadan raises is against Rajesh's claim that the LDF government has made appointments to 52 more institutions through the PSC.

The Congress leader challenged the CPM leader to make it clear if the government has passed the special rule – that is mandatory to make appointments to an institution through PSC – in at least one of these 52 institutions.

Kuzhalnadan goes on to question Rajesh's claims regarding the low number of PSC appointments in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and the higher number of temporary appointments during the UDF regime.

Kuzhalnadan said the number of temporary appointments has come done during the LDF rule because a number of such appointments have been done by consultancies.

He also points out the contradiction in the number of new posts created by the LDF rule as revealed by Rajesh and Finance Minister Thomas Isaac. While Rajesh says 16,508 new posts have been created, Isaac in an earlier interview had said that the government had created over 20,000 new posts.

In a taunt, Kuzhalnadan requests Rajesh to do a fact check of the finance minister's claims too in his 'True Story'.

Kuzhalnadan, who was recently given the charge of the KPCC's research wing, had recently launched a video series titled 'Exposing Pinarayi A-Z campaign'. The plan is to release 26 videos, each discussing a wide variety of allegations against the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

The CPM, on the other hand, has already launched a video campaign in which its leaders like Rajesh and P Rajeev try to reach out to the public with the party's explanations in the allegations against the government. The party took to the social media route recently following the allegations that its leaders were not getting fair share of time in news debates on TV channels.