No VS at EMS centenary

Organising committee member and MP A Vijayaraghavan found nothing unusual in excluding VS. We have not invited Politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan either, he reasoned. However,EMSs nephew Raman Namboothirippad,who has donated the land for the memorial,said the decision to avoid Achuthanandan was unfortunate.

Though party mouthpiece Deshabhimani dedicated six pages to the memory of Namboothirippad,the Chief Minister was not given a single column to recall his long-standing colleague. Its pages had write-ups of even senior Congress leaders A K Antony and K Karunakaran,apart from those of Karat and Vijayan. Of late,Achuthanandan,a former editor of Deshabhimani,has been sidelined by the party daily. Recently,VS had stopped his weekly column in the daily after the party used its own media organisations to attack him.

Though Achuthanandans relation with the party machinery has become frayed over the past few months,his reluctance to join the party campaign against the Governor,who had given the sanction to prosecute Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin scam,has only escalated the situation. Since then,the party mounted a steady attack on Achuthanandan. Hitting on Achuthanandans popularity as a mass leaderhis strength in the partysenior leader T Sivadasa Menon said public support would not prevent the party from taking disciplinary action against leaders.

Speaking in Perinthalamanna,central committee member Vaikom Vishwan said those trying to wreck Vijayan were targeting the party itself. Such forces are the partys enemies,he said. E P Jayarajan,another central committee member,indirectly reminded Achuthanandan that the party machinery was more important than philosophy. For three days,party controlled TV channel People has been airing an archived speech of EMS which said workers should dare to punish even him if he strayed from the party line.