CPM returns Pinarayi's curse. 'Eranam Kettavan' remarks return to haunt Muraleedharan

A moment of triumph can also invite embarrassment. Like Health Minister K Muraleedharan would have realised when one disease outbreak after another came to define his first month in office. 

A taunt he had hurled at former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has returned to haunt him. "If a cursed man rules, the land is doomed," Muraleedharan had said in 2021. ("Eranam kettavan naadu bharichal, naadu mudiyum").

In the manner of charlatans, he was saying that it was Pinarayi's presence that had brought Nipah and Covid upon Kerala. And now, when he is the health minister, Nipah, Shigella, Dengue, Malaria, and Amoebic Meningoencephalitis have resurfaced.

On Monday, the CPM officially got back at Muraleedharan. It used the adjournment motion in the Assembly to remind the health minister of his quack-like diagnosis of Kerala's serial natural disasters. 

It was former minister Mohammad Riyas who moved the motion seeking a temporary suspension of all Assembly proceedings to discuss the health scare in Kerala. It seemed the sole intent of the motion was to embarrass the health minister.

Riyas prefaced his onslaught with these words: "The spread of infectious diseases is not dependant on who is in power. There were 87 deaths (from infectious diseases) in the last one month."

He then recalled Muraleedharan's 'eranam kettavan...' remarks and said: "We don't subscribe to such a view. We are not ready to attack you in these same words. This is not our political culture."

Nonetheless, Riyas did not forget to quote what he claimed to have heard from others. "I heard some people say that there is no leader in the world with such great foresight. But again, those are not our words. I am just pointing out what others said," Riyas said with barely concealed sarcasm.

Muraleedharan avoided a direct response to Riyas's subtle scorn. Instead, he said that only one Nipah case had been reported under his watch. "All the tests done on the index patient's contact list have thrown up negative results," the health minister said.

On the other hand, he said there were 16 deaths during the LDF rule. 

Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan, while making his walk out speech, also reminded the house of Muraleedharan's 'eranam kettavam' remarks. "The 16 deaths in our time did not indicate the wretchedness of the person in power but the devastating impact of the disease," Pinarayi said. 

He also told the House of a certain preventive measure the "cursed people" (eranamkettavar) had adopted. "We enlisted the support of everyone in the fight against the outbreak. We brought the people, people's representatives and the government together," Pinarayi said. Both Pinarayi and Riyas alleged that the prevention measures under Muraleedharan is bureaucracy-centric.

However, the opposition leader had a word of appreciation for the health minister. "It is a good thing that Nipah has not spread to other people," Pinarayi said.

The health minister refuted Riyas's charge that the government had secured the Nipah antiviral only five days after the patient tested positive. "Riyas was referring to Remdesivir. Even his government had not stocked up on this medicine. But we imported the medicine from Bahrain and made it available within 24 hours," the health minister said.

Riyas's Ebola claim was also dismissed by the health minister. "Riyas has stated in his notice that a foreign women had tested positive for Ebola virus. Fact is, no Ebola cases have been reported anywhere in India. A woman who travelled from Sudan via Uganda was admitted to the Kottayam Medical College after she developed some distress. Her samples turned up negative. Her samples were sent to the Virology Institute in Pune and that, too, had thrown up a negative result," the health minister said.