CPI: LDF failed to handle ASHA stir in Kerala

T'puram: CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam said on Sunday that the previous LDF govt failed to handle the protest by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). LDF govt should have taken a different approach in handling their stir. It should not behave like a right-wing govt. A Left government should not disrespect workers' protests or look down on them. But that happened, he said.He said ASHAs should naturally have been close to Left movement, but the front distanced them. Viswam said the poll drubbing is a warning that communists must give priority to the people. He said LDF made mistakes and should correct them and move forward. He also cautioned against ‘personality cults' within LDF, saying if such tendencies had emerged, it was a serious error. CPI is evaluating how LDF was reduced to 35 seats in the 140-member Assembly.Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association had staged a long protest last year, demanding that their honorarium must be hiked to Rs 21,000 and that they must get Rs 5 lakh in retirement benefits. LDF govt had rejected these demands.Amid indications that ex-CM Pinarayi Vijayan may be chosen as the opposition leader in the assembly, Viswam said the deputy opposition leader's post rightfully belonged to CPI and expressed confidence that the party would secure it. Responding to arguments from CPM leaders that the post had no constitutional backing, Viswam said CPI was aware of it but pointed out that the practice existed in Kerala's political system. He said there was no rule that opposition leader and deputy opposition leader must be from the same party. "Some conventions must change. This is one such convention that must change and it will change," he said.Referring to discussions over leadership changes in CPI, he said calls on Facebook demanding that he step down were not the communist way of functioning. CPI had earlier differed with CPM over the handling of ASHAs' protest, though the party had refrained from publicly escalating its disagreement. Following LDF's massive defeat in elections, CPI is now articulating its dissent openly.