Fat Cats Of A Red Citadel

Charges of nepotism make the CPI(M) in Kerala take up some image - saving measures.

- Minu Ittyipe

KANNUR, a district in north Ker­ala, has earned notoriety for its killing fields. For decades, RSS and Marxist cadres in the region have bumped each other off with such regularity that rep orts of the deaths do not raise eyebrows anymore. The district is now spectacularly in the news for another reason, which makes it touch rock bottom on the morality front. Kerala’s industries and sports minister E.P. Ja­yarajan from Kannur, a prominent face of what is known in political circles as the Communist Party of India (M)’s Kannur lobby, quit from the fledgling Left government on charges of nepotism and corruption. Incidentally, the chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the CPI(M) state party chief Kodiyeri Balakrishnan are also from the district. Besides that, the Kerala cabinet has now three ministers from Kannur (with Jayarajan it was four) and the CPI(M)’s decision­making body, the central committee, is also filled with apparatchik from Kannur. Perhaps the violent political arena of Kannur has thrown up more rough­and­tough leaders than the rest of the state.