MVRs clean chit a relief for K Sudhakaran

KANNUR: The ghost of ‘Koothuparamba’ is still stalking the corridors of Kerala politics, even 17 years after  the violent incident in which five DYFI workers were mown down by the police in the Communist heartland.Ironically, this time, it is the factional feud in the  District Congress Committee (DCC) here that resurrected the controversy concerning the Koothuparamba firing. It all began with Congress leader P Ramakrishnan, who quit as president of Kannur DCC coming out with a startling disclosure that it was K Sudhakaran MP, who persuaded CMP leader and former Cooperation Minister M V Raghavan to visit Koothuparamba on November 25, 1994, ‘the day of the firing’.Unfortunately for Ramakrishnan, Raghavan, perhaps the lone politician who is entitled to speak on the issue, clarified on Wednesday that  nobody had persuaded him to visit Koothuparamba on the crucial day of the firing.It was on his own that he chose to visit Koothuparamba despite mounting protests from the DYFI activists. “As a politician, I am not a person to be persuaded by others,” asserted Raghavan  here on Wednesday. The controversial statement made by P Ramakrishnan had cost him his job as president of the Kannur DCC, even as it caused a lot of embarrassment to the entire UDF leadership in the state.Ramakrishnan was left to fend for himself as the ‘A Group’ in the Congress to which he was supposed to belong refused to support his statement.  His fate as DCC president was sealed when Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala said that Ramakrishnan had crossed the limits of discipline.  The UDF has been arguing for the last 17 years that it was a violent DYFI gathering that forced the police to open fire in Koothuparamba. As expected, Ramakrishnan’s rival in the Congress, K Sudhakaran survived without any injuries even after the accusation made by the former. The triumphant Sudhakaran has now managed to obtain the full support of Raghavan on the issue although the latter isn’t on good terms with the UDF leadership in the state now.  Raghavan’s good chit, of course, has now turned irrelevant the demand made by CPM to hold a reinvestigation into the Koothuparamba firing.Reacting to the latest statement made by Raghavan, P Ramakrishnan told Express that the ‘good certificate’ given to Sudhakaran by MVR doesn’t surprise him as the relationship between the two is well known.  The duo depend on each other for their political existence as evident from their own statements in the past.