Left paid for using its ideology to pursue corporate interests: Activist

Thrissur: Noted personalities from various fields feel that the drubbing the Pinarayi regime suffered in the assembly elections is an assertion of the Left-democratic and secular consciousness deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of the people of Kerala. According to them, voters seem to have undertaken an "intelligent selective felling" and eliminated several unwanted elements.Activist-writer B Rajeevan said Left awareness in Kerala evolved from the values of justice, democracy and equality spread by the Renaissance Movement led by leaders like Ayyankali, Sree Narayana Guru, A K Gopalan and P Krishna Pillai. "In this election, the enlightened Left consciousness of Kerala gave a befitting reply to those using Leftist ideology to pursue their corporate interests. The Left and democratic consciousness which was fading has now awakened and retaliated against the decadence of the rulers," Rajeevan said."The poll outcome shows how much people are concerned about true democracy. They don't accept authoritarian type of behaviour, one-upmanship and assertion instead of discussion. They must have decided to vote against such tendencies much earlier. They wanted reasonable politics," said economist K P Kannan. "Also, I don't think our youngsters are communal. A so-called progressive party was hobnobbing with a person like Vellappally Natesan, who openly advocated communalism. He was being given the stature of a pioneer of Renaissance. And there were allegations of corruption one after the other against the govt. The rulers were drunk with power and thinking they could manage people with communication strategies,'' Kannan said. BJP's nominal victory won't sustain in Kerala, he said.According to Kannan, BJP won't get a natural constituency in Kerala given the fact that people of different religious backgrounds have been living together here for centuries. The outgoing Pinarayi govt had facilitated BJP's entry into respectable politics, he said.Metropolitan of Thrissur diocese of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Yuhanon Mor Meletius said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was primarily responsible for LDF's debacle in this election. Mor Meletius said Vijayan was unable to maintain the propriety expected from a public person, said the metropolitan, who was a staunch Left sympathiser."One of the major issues that concerned me was the underlying links between CPM and BJP. I had noticed this during the last Parliament elections. The suspicious meeting between Vijayan and Union finance minister as well as Kerala governor in New Delhi and the CPM minister's clandestine decision to sign the PM Shree project are some of the issues that aggravated my suspicion," he said.