KPCC opts for reconciliation after Remya Haridas fracas, cautions workers
KPCC president Sunny Joseph says reconciliation is the party's watchword after an inquiry into the Chirayinkeezhu fracas involving legislator Remya Haridas.
The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has signalled it will pursue reconciliation rather than punitive action in the late-night fracas involving Congress legislator Remya Haridas and two other party workers at a house in Chirayinkeezhu last week.
KPCC president Sunny Joseph told reporters in Kochi on Friday that he had received the report of the inquiry commission set up to investigate the scuffle, which went viral and caused considerable reputational damage to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government. He said Congress workers should conduct themselves thoughtfully and that reconciliation was the KPCC's watchword, adding that the party would resolve all outstanding differences amicably.
Former KPCC president M.M. Hassan, who headed the commission, was not immediately available for comment.
Party office-bearers familiar with the inquiry said the commission had faulted the parties involved in the conflict. The incident gave sensational material to Communist Party of India (Marxist) social media handles to troll the Congress and the government, and also diverted media attention from the UDF government's flagship 'Re-Imagining Kerala' retreat at the Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode.
The commission reportedly recommended that party legislators uphold the responsibilities and etiquette that come with parliamentary privilege. It also cautioned party workers against settling internal disputes in person or in public, and emphasised that grievances be aired at the appropriate party forum, primarily the District Congress Committee, rather than acted upon individually or in groups, lest such incidents undermine party unity and distort the KPCC's political and organisational messaging.
A Congress insider said the commission highlighted the need for the KPCC to put workers who breach party discipline on strict notice, so that the rank-and-file does not read any hesitancy from the leadership as an open charter for public feuding, while allowing sufficient latitude for contrition and course correction.
The leadership's approach follows recent instances of leniency. Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan had accepted the apology of Thiruvananthapuram District Congress Committee member Anil Kumar, known as Chenthi Anil, whom the KPCC had expelled for blocking his motorcade. Earlier, the KPCC reinstated former KPCC secretary P. Balakrishnan and other workers suspended for participating in the wedding of a CPI(M) leader implicated in the 2019 murder of Congress workers Kripesh and Sarath Lal at Periye in Kasaragod.
The KPCC also let off Thiruvananthapuram DCC general secretary A. Prijin Babu with a warning after issuing him a show-cause notice for creating an impression of dissension in the top leadership over the Chief Minister post by paying for newspaper advertorials backing Ramesh Chennithala for the post following the UDF's victory. In July, the KPCC warned party spokespersons against thrashing out intra-party disputes on television talk shows, though it stopped short of disciplinary action.